March 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case on college programs which a conservative group claimed chills free speech and pushes students to be fearful to express an unpopular or controversial viewpoint.
The nation's highest court turned down the opportunity to weigh in on a lawsuit against Indiana University, brought on by the student First Amendment rights group Free Speech, which centered on the constitutionality of college bias response teams and issues surrounding free speech rights.
"Instead of allowing free-range debate, many colleges are more interested in protecting students from ideas that make them uncomfortable," the advocacy group told the Supreme Court in court documents.
However, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, known to be conservative members of the bench, dissented and wanted to hear the case.
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"Given the number of schools with bias response teams, this Court eventually will need to resolve the split over a student's right to challenge such programs," Thomas wrote Monday.
Describing the group as a "frequent flier of lawsuits against higher-education institutions," Indiana University attorneys urged the court to turn the case away.
The justices rejected the case that was filed on behalf of a group of anonymous students that Free Speech says wanted to freely express opinions on a number of topics like the biology on transgender people and immigration, which some say is "hate speech."
A "bias incident," according to Indiana University, is "any conduct, speech, or expression, motivated in whole or in part by bias or prejudice meant to intimidate, demean, mock, degrade, marginalize, or threaten individuals or groups based on that individual or group's actual or perceived identities."
But university officials said most reports do not identify an accused person by name and offer optional meetings.
According to a court filing, if a student does agree to meet, the school does not require a change in behavior and makes clear they are not disciplined.
"The case is thus not a remotely serviceable vehicle for reaching Speech First's purportedly split-closing question," university officials wrote in court filings. "No such split exists, and this appeal would lead nowhere anyway."
On Monday, Thomas wrote that the court's refusal to intervene now leaves students subject to a "patchwork of First Amendment rights."
"With a student's ability to challenge his university's bias response policies varying depending on accidents of geography," added Thomas, citing his dissent when the court turned down a similar case last year against Virginia Tech after the school disbanded its program.
In 2023, a three-panel federal appeals court ruled that a science teacher's rights were allegedly violated after a principal banned him from bringing a "Make America Great Again" hat to cultural sensitivity training, saying the hat is protected free speech under the First Amendment.
