A Changing Campus Landscape: What Universities Need to Know
Can a public school discipline students for using pronouns that reflect a classmate’s sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity? According to the Sixth Circuit’s en banc decision issued November 6, 2025, the...more
A pending case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit may have a direct impact on Connecticut Schools’ ability to discipline students for speech that occurs via social media. ...more
Can a political slogan be too vulgar for school, even if it never actually uses a bad word? That was the question before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools (Oct. 14, 2025), a...more
Universities have long been the heart of activism and free speech – but today, campus protests face unprecedented legal and political risks. Wiley’s Diana Shaw explains the competing interests that institutions must balance...more
What is OCR saying these days about Title VI, and how are the courts approaching Title VI litigation? Join Bricker Graydon Higher Education attorneys for a free webinar on the latest updates in Title VI litigation and OCR...more
In C.S. v. McCrumb, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit addressed the scope of a public school’s ability to restrict student expression on-campus, particularly when that expression involves politically charged,...more
The U.S. Supreme Court did not issue any merits opinions today, but there were two dissents from denials of cert. that merit attention, both concerning the First Amendment....more
As we head into the November 2024 election and prepare for heightened social and political expression on campus, we'll consider how courts are handling First Amendment and academic freedom concerns for higher education...more
Case resolutions released by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) in the past two weeks may be signaling a change in how OCR expects institutions of higher education to comply with Title VI’s mandate...more
After criticism of her testimony before Congress on antisemitism on college campuses, the President of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, resigned. And, at Pomona College, authorities arrested a professor who...more
On March 4, 2024, the Supreme Court vacated the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ judgment in a case challenging Virginia Tech’s bias intervention and response team policy, instructing the court to dismiss the case as moot. ...more
Our Education Team parses a pair of First Amendment cases that directly affect colleges’ and universities’ free speech policies for employees and students....more
Yes, we are still talking about this. Despite facing what feels like a rising tide of political discourse in our communities for years, we continue to hear concerns about how schools can balance fostering academic freedom,...more
College campuses have traditionally been considered bastions of free speech, where students can express their views and engage in robust discussions without fear of censorship or retaliation....more
THE SUPREME COURT’S 2021 DECISION IN MAHANOY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT V. B.L. The Sixth Circuit’s first ruling on a First Amendment student speech issue since a landmark Supreme Court case in 2021 has arrived, marking the...more
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee, in Kutchinski v. Freeland Community School District, 69 F.4th 350 (6th Cir. 2023), reaffirmed a public school district’s ability...more
A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision held that school officials did not violate students’ First Amendment rights when disciplining them for off-campus social media posts that amounted to severe harassment...more
As anticipated, the Ninth Circuit has waded back into the choppy waters of student online and off-campus speech following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2021 ruling in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L and found that a...more
In re Appeal of G.S., 269 A.3d 718, 722 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2022), appeal denied, 61 MAL 2022, 2022 WL 2447538 (Pa. July 6, 2022) (The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court determined that the expulsion of a student for a social media...more
In J.S. by M.S. v. Manheim Township School District, 263 A.3d 295 (Pa. 2021), Pennsylvania’s highest court took a step toward clarifying the sticky issue of school districts’ ability to discipline students for off-campus...more
Free speech on campus—and off—has become a flashpoint for U.S. colleges and universities. Students’ ability to post their comments and concerns online, to forward messages to others for whom they may not have been intended,...more
Many students are generally familiar with the First Amendment of the Constitution, but they often overlook that it only confers the right “to petition the Government for a redress of such grievances.” As a result, only...more
Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B. L. by and through Levy, 141 S. Ct. 2038 (2021). The United States Supreme Court holds that while schools can sometimes regulate student speech that takes place off-campus, the school district...more
The September 1, 2020 Trending Law Blog post discussed how the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., 964 F.3d 170 (2020), upheld a public school student’s First...more