The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a First Amendment case involving the "bias response team" at Indiana University, the Washington Examiner reported. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority on this refusal.
Bias response teams encourage students to inform on their peers over instances of supposed bias. Some claim they "objectively chill" free expression on college campuses and cause students to self-police their speech.
Thomas said that deciding a case on this issue would have provided a definitive statement on the use of this model. "Given the number of schools with bias response teams, this Court eventually will need to resolve the split over a student’s right to challenge such programs," Thomas wrote.
Some 450 colleges throughout the U.S. employ this model. "The Court’s refusal to intervene now leaves students subject to a 'patchwork of First Amendment rights,' with a student’s ability to challenge his university’s bias response policies varying depending on accidents of geography," Thomas added.
The organization Speech First initiated the lawsuit against Indiana University school officials, including President Pamela Whitten, in 2024, Reuters reported. It has sued nine other universities over similar speech-limiting policies.
The main issue for Speech First involved how the university's policy defined "bias incidents." The vague language included "any conduct, speech or expression motivated in whole or in part by bias or prejudice meant to intimidate, demean, mock, degrade, marginalize or threaten individuals or groups based on that individual or group's actual or perceived identities."
Students are then encouraged to submit a report of such conduct, whether they experienced it or witnessed something they thought was discriminatory. "Indiana University is committed to creating welcoming, inclusive, and respectful campus communities where everyone can thrive and do their best work - a place where all are treated with civility and respect," the school's website touts.
However, the policy meant to ensure these lofty ideals tramples of the free speech rights of some of its students. The university confers the power to its administrators "to police speech that someone believes is motivated by 'bias,'" the lawsuit noted.
"This policy poses a grave risk of chilling the open and unfettered discourse that should be central to higher education," the lawsuit added. This is especially problematic because the university is a public institution.
This battle over free speech on college campuses is creating other concerns. While traditionally-minded students feel hemmed in by bias response teams, Jewish students are increasingly falling victim to anti-Israel hatred.
According to the Associated Press, freedom of speech on college campuses applies liberally to phrases such as "from the river to the sea," which implies Israel has no right to exist. While institutions penalize students for any perceived slight, these incendiary phrases are allowed.
"What I always hear now is how, when students are upset or offended, they phrase it as ‘I feel unsafe.’ And I think it’s so important that we separate out the campus’ duty," Edwin Chemerinsky, the law school dean for the University of California, Berkley, claimed.
"It’s not our role to make them safe from ideas that they don’t want exposed to. But that line, I think, has gotten blurred," he added.
It's unfair that some speech is protected while others are silenced. Thomas and Alito are right that the high court should not remove itself from this issue, if for no other reason than to shore up First Amendment rights for all with a definitive ruling on it.
