Bryan Stascavage—a 30-year-old Iraq veteran and Wesleyan student—wrote an opinion column for the Wesleyan Argus, a student newspaper, criticizing Black Lives Matter’s tactics and messaging. Almost immediately students began protesting the article, starting by vandalizing and destroying copies of the newspaper across campus. The protestors also demanded that the student government defund the Argus unless a series of diversity-based demands were met. Due to widespread backlash from the administration and the general public, the student government dropped the defunding proposal.

Student was instructed by university official that she and her friends would need “special permission” to display political signs on campus, and to remain within the college’s “free speech zone” if she wanted to demonstrate. As part of the settlement agreement, Blinn College agreed to revise restrictive policies targeted in the lawsuit to comply with the First Amendment. Blinn also agreed to pay student Nicole Sanders $50,000 for damages and attorney’s fees.

Michelle Gregoire and Brandon Withers—two students at Kellogg Community College (“KCC”)—were distributing pocket-size copies of the United States Constitution on campus. Although they were not impeding any walkways or accosting students, college administrators approached them and ordered them to stop their activities since they were violating multiple KCC “speech policies.” When Gregoire and Withers refused, citing their First Amendment rights, the school had them—and an associate—arrested, jailed, and charged with trespassing. Although the charges were soon dropped, the school refused to change any of its speech policies. Gregoire and Withers filed a complaint in the Western District of Michigan seeking injunctive, declaratory, and monetary relief to force KCC to change its allegedly unconstitutional policies. The school eventually settled, agreed to change its policies, and paid Gregoire and Withers $55,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.