A conservative group has sued Virginia Tech claiming its policies stifle right-wing speech. This comes a week after the university condemned a student club’s leaked group chats, described as “homophobic, racist, ableist, and misogynistic.”
The Washington D.C.- based Speech First, Inc., filed a lawsuit on behalf of three politically conservative Virginia Tech students. They say they fear their viewpoints violate university policy, because they may be considered “biased and harassing” under university policies.
They claim the university’s definition of bias-related incident is “amorphous” and “subjective.” The definition includes discrimination based on age, gender and disability among other characteristics.
The lawsuit says Virginia Tech’s policies restrain and suppress speech about the political issues of the day. It asks the court to bar the school from punishing students for bias-related incidents and enforcing the discriminatory harassment policy.
Virginia Tech officials told VPM that they have not been served with the lawsuit and are unable to comment.