Judge Rules Texas College Must Allow Empty-Holster Protests

Tarrant County College violated the First Amendment rights of two students when it did not allow them to hold “empty holster” protests in November, a federal district-court judge ruled yesterday. The community college’s chancellor, Erma J. Hadley, testified in January that she had felt that the protests might have frightened some students or allowed others to use the events to carry weapons on the campus, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The two students, who want a change in state law to allow licensed, concealed handguns on campuses, can now seek to recover legal fees from the college, which was ordered not to ban the protests.