The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Travis Barham regarding the brief filed today by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of a college student that Georgia Gwinnett College censored when he spoke about his faith on campus.

In December, ADF filed a civil liberties lawsuit challenging the college’s enforcement of its speech zone and speech code policies that violated Chike Uzuegbunam’s First Amendment-protected rights to free speech and free exercise of religion:

“As the Department of Justice brief filed in this case affirms, students don’t lose their constitutionally protected right to free speech when they set foot on a college campus. While touting commitments to diversity and open communications, Georgia Gwinnet College confined the speech of students to two ridiculously small speech zones and then censored the speech that occurred in those areas. It is encouraging to see that the Department of Justice takes the constitutional rights of college and university students so seriously, and we hope that Georgia Gwinnett College will be held accountable for disregarding these freedoms.”

The U.S. Department of Justice filed this statement of interest today in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski.