Fourth Circuit backs Virginia Tech bias reporting policy

May 31, 2023 1 min read

By Joe Dodson
Courthouse News Service

Excerpt: A Fourth Circuit majority agreed Wednesday with a district court's determination that Virginia Tech's bias response team does not have a chilling effect on free speech.

"Our country rightfully places great value on the freedom of speech, and any statute or regulation implicating speech receives close scrutiny," the ruling states. "Freedom of speech, after all, is expressly protected in the very first of the original amendments to our Constitution. But the First Amendment does not stand in the way of modest efforts to encourage civility on college campuses." The opinion penned by U.S. Circuit Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a Bill Clinton appointee, came after oral arguments in October.

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