Identity of Speakers
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Todd Schmidt
Unaffiliated
OtherTodd Schmidt is from the Laramie Faith Community Church and frequently reserved UW's breezeway tables.
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Other
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Incident Political Orientation:
Right wing -
Incident Responses:
University investigation issuing in sanctions
Litigation
Title IX or other federal statute
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Incident Status:
Settled
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
The Plaintiff, Todd Schmidt, has reserved a table in the breezeway of University of Wyoming (UW) very frequently for over a decade. In September, 2022, Artemis Langford, a biological male at birth who identifies as a female, joined a UW sorority. In December 2022, Schmidt put a sign on his reserved table that stated “God created male and female and Artemis Langford is a male.” The sign attracted many students who blocked the sign from being seen by others and engaged in vigorous debate with Schmidt. Schmidt ultimately removed Artemis’ name from the sign.
Although the University first responded by sending out an email to the community that Schmidt’s sign did not violate UW policies, UW alumni group sent a letter to the President, Edward Seidel, threatening that they would withhold donation to the University if UW does not ban Schmidt from tabling. The University later suspended Schmidt’s tabling reservation privileges.
The U.S. District Court for Wyoming granted the motion for preliminary injunction of the suspension. The court found that Schmidt did not engage in harassment or discriminatory conduct, reasoning that Schmidt only engaged in debates with students over Langford’s gender identity and did not engage directly with Langford. He expressed a viewpoint that resulted in the University’s action against him, which constituted viewpoint discrimination.
