MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys sent a demand letter Wednesday on behalf of Turning Point USA at the University of Memphis to college officials after an event sponsored by TPUSA was shut down by a student mob. ADF attorneys are asking University of Memphis administrators to reschedule the event, provide adequate security, and refund TPUSA an unconstitutional security fee it was forced to pay after the event was shut down.
TPUSA scheduled an event on-campus in March featuring conservative speaker Kyle Rittenhouse addressing the importance of individual rights and self-defense. In advance, students and others reserved tickets for the purpose of not showing up or to heckle the speaker and event organizers. At the event, students inside the theater loudly heckled and jeered, forcing Rittenhouse to end the event early. A mob chased TPUSA members to their cars, hurled death threats, and blocked them from exiting. The university then charged TPUSA $1,600 for security that stood idly by and allowed the mob to shut down the event. The University never punished any disruptor.
“College campuses are meant to be a safe haven for the open exchange of ideas, but more and more, university officials are choosing to let violent mobs disrupt events for the purpose of shutting down speech they don’t like,” said ADF Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffmann. “The University of Memphis failed to uphold the Constitution and Tennessee law that protect free speech on college campuses. Instead of enforcing rules and empowering security to take action, campus officials allowed unruly students to issue a heckler’s veto at the expense of TPUSA. We are urging officials to right their wrongs and allow this event to take place again without any issue.”
“Turning Point USA stands firmly against the suppression of free speech, especially on college campuses where varied ideas should be encouraged and debated,” said TPUSA Public Relations Manager Aubrey Laitsch. “The University of Memphis’s interference with the ticketing process and failure to stop disruption to the students’ peaceful event was unacceptable. We’re grateful for ADF’s efforts to ensure that students at the University of Memphis have the opportunity to rectify the wrongs done to them and engage in open dialogue without fear of disruption or censorship. Universities should be a marketplace of ideas and TPUSA will continue working to ensure that is possible.”
According to the demand letter, TPUSA, with the university’s approval, used its own ticketing system to allow students to reserve free tickets to the event. Other students on social media caused an uproar and reserved tickets to disrupt or ignore the event. College officials then accused TPUSA of using a ticketing system that was not “fair and equitable” and forced TPUSA to change to the university’s system just 24 hours before the scheduled event. The university only reserved 50 of the 300 tickets for TPUSA members.
On the day of the event, students loudly heckled Rittenhouse, forcing him to end his speech early and move to the Q&A portion before his security team escorted him out of the building. The mob chased TPUSA members to the parking lot, spitting on and hitting their cars as they tried to leave. Police and university officials who were present at the event took no action against the mob. Students went on to boast that they gave Rittenhouse a “Memphis welcome.” To the knowledge of TPUSA members, no disciplinary action was taken against the disruptors, but TPUSA had to pay the high security bill despite the lack of enforcement.
ADF attorneys are asking university officials to invite Rittenhouse back to give his full presentation, use a fair ticketing system or allow TPUSA to use its own, provide adequate security and enforce rules that protect free speech, refund TPUSA the high security fee, and undergo free speech training.
H. David Lowrance, one of more than 4,800 attorneys in the ADF Attorney Network, is serving as local counsel for TPUSA at the University of Memphis.
The ADF Center for Academic Freedom is dedicated to protecting First Amendment and related freedoms for students and faculty so that everyone can freely participate in the marketplace of ideas without fear of government censorship.
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