Last month, FIRE took on the case of Tim Garneau, a University of New Hampshire undergraduate who was evicted from the campus dorms after posting a flyer advising women dorm residents to take the stairs rather than the elevator, thus freeing up the elevator for students living on upper floors while at the same time warding off the weight gain notoriously associated with campus dining halls.

Now FIRE reports that UNH has seen the embarrassing error of its ways. Garneau is moving back into the dorms today, and he no longer has to live out of his car. But he doesn't get his old room back--he has instead been "relocated" to another dorm. And he still has to undergo extended disciplinary probation and he still must meet with a campus judicial officer to discuss ethics--neither of which punishments makes much sense, given the innocuous nature of Garneau's "offense" and the patently illegal nature of UNH's response to it.

FIRE is calling this case a "victory," but the victory is clearly a partial one.

UPDATE: Penraker says Garneau should sue.

I still think UNH needs to be sued over this one. The measures they took to punish this kid over a small transgression (All they needed to do was tell him "Take the flyers down, and don't do it again") went over a line. They unnecessarily embarrassed him, made him a pariah, dragged him into a national debate, and made him live like a bum in his car. Plus, mandating that he write a 3,000 word thought crime confessional is disgusting in a free society. Your thoughts are your own - and you should not be made to intellectually rape yourself by being forced to profess thoughts you don't have. Where else in America is this allowed? I can't think of a single place.

Might I suggest that real scandal is the complete illiteracy of this college student? Instead of political reeducation, perhaps he'd be better served in a remedial writing class.