Pushback: Student wins against school officials who tried to suppress her first amendment rights
Maggie DeJong, fighting back hard and winning
Bring a gun to a knife fight: In April Maggie DeJong, a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), sued [pdf] three of the college’s faculty members for attempting in 2022 to both punish her and well as silence her from her first amendment right to speak, simply because some other leftist students complained they did not like her opinions. As I wrote in April when I first reported this story:
These officials issued three “no contact” orders against DeJong, forbidding her to have any contact with three co-students in her program, simply because she had religious and political opinions they disagreed with and did not wish to hear. This orders essentially blacklisted her from the program, because of its small nature, and were literally a priori gag orders on her right to freely express her opinions. The officials also admitted that DeJong had violated no school policy, nor did they provide her any due process before issuing the orders. When challenged by DeJong’s lawyers, the university quickly realized the utter illegality of these orders, and cancelled them.
Unlike most recent cases of blacklisting, DeJong did not sue the university but the individuals involved, making them personally liable. Last week her lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced that it had settled the case with those individuals in a manner that signaled a solid victory. The three defendants, Jamie Ball (director for Equal Opportunity, Access and Title IX Coordination), Randall Penbrook (school chancellor), and Megan Robb (her teacher) agreed to pay $80,000 and, most importantly, attend a class on the First Amendment, run by ADF lawyers.
In addition, these officials and the university agreed to revise the college’s policies and student handbook “to ensure students with varying political, religious, and ideological views” will all be treated equally in the art therapy program. In plain English, this means the language will no longer be couched in a way that only favors the Marxist and queer agenda, while simultaneously being very hostile to devout Christians, as illustrated by the guidelines recently issued by Pennyslvania’s Education Department.
This is a real victory for free speech and tolerance. These college officials had arbitrarily decided that only one point of view could be allowed, and decided they could punish anyone who said otherwise. They have now suffered personally for this illegal action. I guarantee they will not do it again.
Other college officials nationwide should take note. Take any illegal actions against the first amendment rights of any of your students and you will face legal action that is going to cost you. ADF is only one of many new non-profit legal firms standing ready and willing to defend the rights of conservatives whose constitutional rights have been violated.
We should expect a lot more victories like this in the coming years, considering the number of cases in the past three years where leftists in universities and state governments decided they were gods who could dictate what speech was allowed and forbidden. In American the fundamental law of the land still forbids such tyrannical actions, and DeJong’s victory here proves it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Maggie DeJong, fighting back hard and winning
Bring a gun to a knife fight: In April Maggie DeJong, a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), sued [pdf] three of the college’s faculty members for attempting in 2022 to both punish her and well as silence her from her first amendment right to speak, simply because some other leftist students complained they did not like her opinions. As I wrote in April when I first reported this story:
These officials issued three “no contact” orders against DeJong, forbidding her to have any contact with three co-students in her program, simply because she had religious and political opinions they disagreed with and did not wish to hear. This orders essentially blacklisted her from the program, because of its small nature, and were literally a priori gag orders on her right to freely express her opinions. The officials also admitted that DeJong had violated no school policy, nor did they provide her any due process before issuing the orders. When challenged by DeJong’s lawyers, the university quickly realized the utter illegality of these orders, and cancelled them.
Unlike most recent cases of blacklisting, DeJong did not sue the university but the individuals involved, making them personally liable. Last week her lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced that it had settled the case with those individuals in a manner that signaled a solid victory. The three defendants, Jamie Ball (director for Equal Opportunity, Access and Title IX Coordination), Randall Penbrook (school chancellor), and Megan Robb (her teacher) agreed to pay $80,000 and, most importantly, attend a class on the First Amendment, run by ADF lawyers.
In addition, these officials and the university agreed to revise the college’s policies and student handbook “to ensure students with varying political, religious, and ideological views” will all be treated equally in the art therapy program. In plain English, this means the language will no longer be couched in a way that only favors the Marxist and queer agenda, while simultaneously being very hostile to devout Christians, as illustrated by the guidelines recently issued by Pennyslvania’s Education Department.
This is a real victory for free speech and tolerance. These college officials had arbitrarily decided that only one point of view could be allowed, and decided they could punish anyone who said otherwise. They have now suffered personally for this illegal action. I guarantee they will not do it again.
Other college officials nationwide should take note. Take any illegal actions against the first amendment rights of any of your students and you will face legal action that is going to cost you. ADF is only one of many new non-profit legal firms standing ready and willing to defend the rights of conservatives whose constitutional rights have been violated.
We should expect a lot more victories like this in the coming years, considering the number of cases in the past three years where leftists in universities and state governments decided they were gods who could dictate what speech was allowed and forbidden. In American the fundamental law of the land still forbids such tyrannical actions, and DeJong’s victory here proves it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If I was younger, I’d ask her to marry me. (I hope it was $80K each! Make ’em REALLY hurt!)
Now for Elon to contribute to Cornel West’s campaign
When they have to reach into their own pockets to come up with the money, they won’t be able to pretend they didn’t actually lose.
I guarantee they will not do it again.
Awww, don’t you look cute in your rose-colored glasses!
“… these officials and the university agreed to revise the college’s policies and student handbook “to ensure students with varying political, religious, and ideological views” will all be treated equally in the art therapy program. In plain English, this means the language will no longer be couched in a way that only favors the Marxist and queer agenda, while simultaneously being very hostile to devout Christians…”
That’s what they say they’ll do. And while people are still watching, they just might. But then they’ll try to figure some way around that very specific wording and, well, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Related:
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“The other day I spoke with three teachers. ”
NOTES FROM THE REAL WORLD: ITS THE CHILDREN (sigma3ioc.com)
Very much related, Margaret Thatcher: Socialist hate freedom:
https://youtu.be/bOJg1LenVS8 All in 1 minute and 43 seconds.
That is all it takes.