New restrictions on campus speech in Texas have spurred a lawsuit from a coalition of student groups, including a Dallas ministry concerned about the impact on Bible studies, worship nights, and evangelism on campus.
The Campus Protection Act bans First Amendment–protected speech or expressive conduct between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. and prohibits using amplified sound, playing drums, or inviting guest speakers during the last two weeks of the semester.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, Texas lawmakers will meet to reexamine free speech protections at universities, including the implications of the new law, which passed last session and went into effect September 1.
Although legislators drafted the law in response to last year’s pro-Palestine protests as a means of “ensuring safety, order, and respect,” per the bill’s sponsor, it simultaneously impacts outreach by organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian University Students (FOCUS).
“It does matter that we as a ministry can meet students where they’re at when they need it,” said Juke Matthews, a FOCUS council chair at The University of Texas at Dallas. Someone could be going “through it at 10 p.m. at night, and as somebody who wants to look like Jesus, I want to be able to meet them or talk to them at that time and help them walk through things.”
State officials announced Friday that they formed two legislative committees in honor of Kirk, who was killed at a college event in Utah last week. According to the officials, the committees will also monitor “the climate of discourse and freedom of speech on campus” in light of the recently enacted Campus Protection Act and make recommendations for future policy decisions.
On September 3, FOCUS—alongside The Retrograde student newspaper, Young Americans for Liberty, the Texas Society of Unconventional Drummers, and Strings Attached—filed suit against The University of Texas system, which encompasses nine university campuses across the state, including in Arlington, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio, and Tyler.
The student groups are represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan free speech advocacy group.
“Early morning prayer meetings on campus, for example, are now prohibited by law,” the lawsuit contends. “Students best beware of donning a political t-shirt during the wrong hours. And they must think twice before inviting a pre-graduation speaker, holding a campus open-mic night to unwind before finals, or even discussing the wrong topic—or discussing almost anything—in their dorms after dark.”
The Campus Protection Act walks back previous legislation that strengthened free speech on public college campuses in Texas and “casts a long censorial shadow,” according to the complaint. FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh argues that administrators can prevent disruptive conduct without issuing such broad restrictions.
The university system declined to comment to local media, citing pending litigation, and has not responded to an updated request for comment.
The act’s rollout this month corresponds with heightened scrutiny around free expression in state schools, with a Texas A&M professor fired over gender-identity lessons in a literature course, a Texas Tech University student arrested at a campus vigil for Kirk, and officials poised to discipline dozens of teachers and professors over social media responses around the conservative figure.
In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale Law School professor Keith E. Whittington referred to “the assassination that broke campus free speech” and wrote that the outcry over Kirk’s death “kicked into overdrive the interest of colleges in punishing members of the campus community for politically inflammatory speech.”
J-Stop MediaAt UT Dallas, a campus lecture hall turns into a sanctuary of sorts each Friday during the semester for FOCUS’s large group gathering called The Grove. With string lights, a curated worship playlist, live music, and Bible teaching delivered by a campus pastor, The Grove is where FOCUS invites students to learn about God and connect with one another.
The gathering concludes around 9 p.m., but Matthews said it’s not uncommon for cries of “encore” to ring out after the music ends or for fellowship to linger on into the night.
Whether they head to the Taco Bell Cantina on campus to grab a late-night snack or stay after the worship service to talk, students can’t count on campus ministry outreach ending at a time the law demands.
Much of evangelism is relational, “and that’s often how we see Jesus go about it,” said Matthews, a senior.
“He’s building friendships with people and getting to know them, meeting them where they’re at. In the same way, we try to meet people on campus and get to know them, share our stories with one another, and invite them into our ministry to experience community. Not having that time period where we can have those expressive activities, I think it is just going to be very harmful to that,” he said.
A few of the late-night chats Matthews has been a part of stemmed from the sermons preached at The Grove, often “to address what someone’s feeling then and there.” In his experience, these conversations can take anywhere from an hour to two—or on rare occasions they go as late as 2 a.m.
FOCUS leaders also worry the law could stymie the ministry of its campus pastors. As it stands, the Campus Protection Act limits expressive activity to students and employees only, reversing a previous version of the law that protected First Amendment rights of “any person” in the common outdoor areas of public Texas universities.
Campus pastors—employed by FOCUS, not the university—facilitate and support ministry events, from teaching at The Grove each week to helping student leaders plan small group Bible studies and even leading Bible studies themselves.
As the semester winds down, the support of campus pastors is more important than ever as students prepare for exams and “have less time to give to the ministry,” Matthews said. Large group meetings, study nights, and worship nights “would be just be out of the question those last two weeks,” he added.
While meeting off campus is an option, it can be logistically challenging since many students live on campus and some don’t drive or have vehicles.
“Throughout the Bible, we see a lot of people who are in much more dangerous and hard areas to evangelize. God still wants to do that effort. Regardless of what happens with this law, I do trust that God will be with us as a ministry and the other ministries at UTD,” Matthews said. “But I also think it’s important that we as an organization step up and try to fight for our rights.”
