Identity of Speakers
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Briscoe Cain
Unaffiliated
Invited for non-academic lectureBriscoe Cain is a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Recognized student group event
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Incident Political Orientation:
Right-of-spectrum -
Incident Responses:
Rally or Protests
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Incident Protested
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
Briscoe Cain is a member of the Texas House of Representatives. On October 9, 2017, Cain was scheduled to speak at Texas Southern University’s (TSU) Thurgood Marshall School of Law at the invitation of that university’s chapter of the Federalist Society. When he arrived, a group of student protestors began demonstrating against him, accusing him of having ties to the alt-right. Then university president Austin Lane cancelled the event, saying that it was not an approved with the administration. The Federalist Society chapter at TSU was registered with the law school’s Student Bar Association but not with student services on the main campus. The interim dean of the law school characterized the cancellation as a free-speech violation.
On October 16, Cain announced that he planned to file a lawsuit against Texas Southern University, alleging his First Amendment rights were violated when he was kept from speaking to students. He said the decision to cancel his speech was made because of his political views, a contention that the university denied. As of June 2021, no lawsuit had been filed.
