The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is demanding that a Texas community college stop censoring a pro-life student who criticized an event with Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion provider.
The Philadelphia-based civil-liberties group gave McLennan Community College in Waco until December 1 to respond to its letter stating that the college violated the First Amendment with its censorship of pro-life student Madison Evans.
An arm of the community college posted on its Instagram account about an upcoming event featuring Planned Parenthood. On October 17, the pro-life student wrote in response, “the murder of innocent babies is not a great resource ever. as a student i am disappointed & disgusted that murder of innocent lives is being encouraged.” But the administrator running the account deleted her comment.
An administrator reiterated the university’s position that it can delete comments it disapproves of in a meeting on October 18. “MCC’s social media accounts are not appropriate platforms for expressing concerns about the values of another community organization,” Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Jennifer Norman told Evans.
FIRE disagrees. It stated:
That view does not comport with the First Amendment, to which public colleges must adhere. When government officials including public college administrators create forums for open discussion, whether in-person or online, the First Amendment restrains the regulation of speech within the forum. Among other things, viewpoint discrimination is forbidden, as established in longstanding precedent.
FIRE observed that a federal court has previously ruled a Facebook page for a county board qualifies as a public forum where viewpoint-based restrictions are forbidden. That ruling also stated that content-based restrictions are forbidden unless narrowly drawn to achieve a compelling interest.
FIRE argues that Evan’s comment “was relevant engagement with the Instagram post that Planned Parenthood was coming to campus to connect with students, and CREW’s decision to delete the comment silenced that part of the discourse surrounding this contentious political and cultural debate.”
“CREW’s Instagram administrators’ selective removal of Evans’ critical yet relevant comment is textbook viewpoint discrimination,” said FIRE’s letter.
College administrators “may not suppress disfavored views when moderating social media commentary on accounts open to public posts.”
“Nothing in the law requires public colleges to manage an Instagram account, but the law does impose obligations when they
choose to do so.”
