The Supreme Court ruled Monday that taxpayer-funded colleges cannot punish students for expressing their religious beliefs.
Chike Uzuegbunam, an evangelical Christian student who graduated from Georgia Gwinnett College, a public college in Georgia, sued his alma mater after several incidents in 2016 during which he alleged the school violated his free speech rights by harassing him as he attempted to distribute religious materials on campus. The Court ruled 8-1 in favor of Uzuegbunam, finding that the school violated his constitutional rights and that he could still be awarded symbolic damages even though the school changed its policies and he graduated before the case was decided.
“It is undisputed that Uzuegbunam experienced a completed violation of his constitutional rights when respondents enforced their speech policies against him,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.
The Court weighed the significance of awarding Uzuegbunam and another Christian student a small payment, or “nominal damages,” as recompense for the mistreatment they suffered from the university. Thomas wrote that the “nominal damages can redress Uzuegbunam’s injury even if he cannot or chooses not to quantify that harm in economic terms.”- READ MORE
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