The North Carolina State University is facing a lawsuit from a Christian student group over its policy that requires students to get a permit before they can talk to anyone about Jesus.
Grace Christian Life has filed the lawsuit against the university after its officials barred members of the group last September from approaching other students in the Talley Student Union building to engage in religious talks with them or invite them to attend events.
They got a permit to set up a table in the student union last January and were allowed to speak to other students anywhere in the room. However, when members left the table to talk to students, a member of the Student Involvement Office approached and told them that they must stay behind the table, said the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the group in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit pointed out that the university did not impose the same restriction on other groups as evidenced by observations and documentations by Grace Christian Life members who saw other groups freely speaking with other students and handing out flyers without a permit.
The university is citing its Speech Permit Policy as basis for its new policy, which the ADF is saying as unconstitutional.
"We believe that the only permit a student needs to speak on college campuses is the First Amendment," said ADF attorney Tyson Langhofer, according to Fox News.
Chief U.S. District Judge James Dever III issued a preliminary injunction stopping the university from imposing the policy.
The university has until Friday to file its response to ADF's request from the judge to issue a permanent injunction that would stop the school from infringing on the Christian group's activities until a ruling is issued.
In the preliminary injunction, the court said Grace Christian Life has established that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that North Carolina State University's Non-Commercial Solicitation policy violates the First Amendment.
The group has also proved that it is likely to suffer harm without the preliminary injunction and that "the balance of the equities tips in plaintiff's favour."
University Chancellor Randy Woodwon denied that it discriminated against the student group.
"This lawsuit is without merit; the implication that an organisation has been treated differently on our campus because they are a religious group is false," Woodson said.
