U.S. Judge Rejects College's Sexual-Harassment Policy as Free-Speech Violation

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the Los Angeles Community College District’s sexual-harassment code violates free-speech rights and ordered the district to stop enforcing the policy while he hears a lawsuit over it, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

The ruling concerned a request for an injunction against the policy by Jonathan Lopez, a student who says a professor, John Matteson, cut him off during a classroom speech last fall about his religious beliefs and opposition to gay marriage. In his lawsuit, Mr. Lopez says Mr. Matteson called him a “fascist bastard.”

The student, who is seeking financial damages, used his lawsuit to challenge the district’s sexual-harassment policy as too vague. The judge, George H. King of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, agreed, saying the code’s terms, such as “hostile” and “offensive,” were subjective and discouraged free expression.

Decisions on injunctions, while not definitive judgments on the merits of a case, often are indicators of how a judge will eventually rule after a trial.

In its defense, the district argued that Mr. Lopez’s claim was “moot” because he was given an A in the course and the professor was disciplined. But Judge King wrote in his ruling that the district’s argument “misses the mark” by not addressing the policy.

Judge King also expressed disappointment with the district’s failure to mention early on that the harassment code had been repealed in 2007. But because the policy remained on the district’s Web sites, he said it still had the potential to discourage free speech. —Ashley C. Killough