Two Student Clubs File Federal Lawsuits Alleging Violations of First Amendment Rights

Two student clubs filed federal lawsuits this week against their respective universities, both alleging violations of First Amendment rights.

Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) charged the University of Iowa (UI) with illegally deregistering it last month, after the student group refused administrators' direction to revise its religious mission statement, according to the complaint filed Monday.

UI administrators cancelled the official club status of BLinC, founded in 2014 at UI's Tippie College of Business, when a member claimed he had been denied a leadership role in 2016 because he was gay.

BLinC rejected that accusation in Monday's suit, saying the student was rebuffed "because he expressly stated that he rejected BLinC's beliefs and would not follow them."

Elsewhere, the conservative student club Turning Point USA filed a suit Wednesday against Arkansas State University (ASU) to fight the school's "speech zones" policy.

The suit, filed by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of student Ashlyn Hoggard, charged that ASU has severely limiting freedom of expression policies by setting up such zones.

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