NC State: Christian Group Must Obtain Permit to Talk to Other Students

 

 

North Carolina State University is requiring a Christian group to obtain a permit before speaking to other students on campus.

 

According to Fox News’s Todd Starnes, Grace Christian Life, a student group registered at NC State, has filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging that the school discriminated against them by requiring them to obtain a permit and restricting their free speech rights.

 

Starnes reports that in September 2015, the group was told that they had to stop approaching students in order to engage in religious discussions unless they obtained a permit to do so.

 

“It’s an amazingly broad speech restriction,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Tyson Langhofer told Starnes. “Public universities are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, not places where students need a permit just to exercise their constitutionally protected freedoms.”

 

Alliance Defending Freedom also says that the Christian group was singled out by the university which did not target other groups.

 

“The University has not restricted the ability of other students and student groups to engage in expressive activity,” the lawsuit states. “Grace has witnessed other students, student groups and off-campus groups handing out literature either without a permit or outside of the area reserved by their table permit.”

 

Grace Christian Life student president Hannalee Alrutz told Starnes in an interview that “Colleges are supposed to be places where ideas are freely shared – not gagged. The only permit a student needs to speak on campus is the First Amendment.”