With all the publicity about speech codes and students' rights (for a tiny sampling, see this and this), you'd think college administrators would start to get it. After all, the new campus free speech movement is getting so prominent that it has even got itself a poster girl. But admins, it seems, are not always the brightest of bulbs.

The University of New Orleans is getting itself sued by the American Center for Law and Justice, a D.C. public interest firm, for barring a Messianic Jew from distributing leaflets on campus. UNO is a public institution, and so is obligated to respect both the First Amendment and the right to due process. It ignored both when it told Michelle Beadle, a New Orleans resident, that she could not hand out her literature because it might offend some members of the UNO community (Beadle's tract controversially states that "Jews should believe in Jesus"). The law suit notes two big problems with UNO policy: first, that it requires those who would distribute religious material on campus to submit it to a university official for review; second, that it does not have clear guidelines as to what sort of expression is and is not acceptable. Beadle has met both problems face to face: when she first attempted to pass out tracts on campus, she was stopped for not having permission. When she then sought permission, it was denied. "The literature may be offensive, but the First Amendment protects even speech sometimes that people find offensive," said Beadle's lawyer, who calls this case a classic instance of "prior restraint." He added, "In a public place, you can't deny people from distributing literature or engaging in speech activities."

Some admins are starting to learn, but not without some unpleasantly public prodding. The University of Maryland also got itself sued for unreasonably restricting students' free speech rights. The ACLU filed suit against the school for restricting leafletting to two small "free speech zones" and confining demonstrations to ten locations on campus. Lots of schools have such zones--which do less to encourage free speech in the zone than to send the message that speech is not free on the rest of campus. And lots of schools are starting to take some heat for it (Citrus College and Texas Tech are prominent recent examples). The good news is that Maryland saw the error of its ways and rescinded its policy. Now students, faculty, and staff can hand out leaflets in any outdoor location on campus (are you watching this, UNO?), and demonstrations of up to ten people can be held anywhere, at any time. The school no longer requires small groups of demonstrators to register their protests in advance. There is still one area of contention, however: the school disagrees with the ACLU about whether people from off campus should have the same rights as students, faculty, and staff.