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Pro-Life Cougars win settlement

By Lisa Street
The Daily Cougar

In a settlement reached with the Pro-Life Cougars, the University of Houston agreed on Wednesday to alter its freedom of expression policy and pay $93,000 in attorneyis fees to the groupis representatives, the Alliance Defense Fund.

Nathan Lindstrom/ The Daily Cougar
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"The University is now required to open Butler Plaza to organized student expression, including razor-sharp images of abortion that challenge conventional thinking on the issue of taking human life," said Alliance Defense Fund chief council Benjamin Bull in a press release. "The First Amendment permits no less."

Under the new speech policy, the controversial two-story tall pro-life exhibit will no longer be banned from display in Butler Plaza, the high-traffic student area in front of M.D. Anderson Memorial Library, as long as Pro-Life Cougars, upon registration for an outdoor area, presents documentation from an engineer stating the oversized model is safe. Also, the student organization may set up other exhibits on campus simultaneously with the display as well as hand out anonymous leaflets and carry sandwich boards.

The case emerged in January 2002 when Vice President of Student Affairs Elwyn C. Lee and Dean of Students William F. Munson denied the Pro-Life Cougarsi application to put up the exhibit in Butler Plaza because of its graphic photos of aborted fetuses.

"We brought the display and a lot of people voiced an opposition to it including members of the faculty of the University of Houston, and so the following semester they changed the policy," said Jonathan Saenz, the Pro-Life Cougars chairman in Spring 2003.

Under the policy, Munson was authorized to dictate student organizationsi outdoor expression at his own disgression -- a policy U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. deemed unconstitutional in June 2002.

The University fought back by amending its Freedom of Expression policy in July 2002 to limit outdoor expression to four specific areas providing the event did not interfere with normal University operations, did not present a security risk and did not interfere with the rights of others.

Pro-Life Cougars found the updated policy restricted its First Amendment rights and challenged the University in the Fifth Circuit Court.

"Just because someone doesnit agree with you doesnit mean you canit present those ideas in the free market," Saenz said. "It is the debate that the Constitution was set up to defend."

The settlement states a new Freedom of Expression policy will be formulated and put into effect by June 30.
 

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