Possible Lawsuit at Stanford

FIRE recently learned that FIRE Legal Network attorney Robert Corry, who successfully sued Stanford University for its speech code in 1994, has taken up the cause of preserving door-to-door distribution of student publications on Stanford’s campus. Stanford bans door-to-door distribution of literature unless hall residents specifically vote to endorse it, and the conservative Stanford Review, whose editors have long distributed their issues door-to-door, has joined The Stanford Progressive in objecting to the current state of affairs. Review editors have refused to abide by Stanford’s policy and are currently facing sanctions. All of this has led Corry to write to Stanford’s president threatening a lawsuit unless the ban on door-to-door distribution is overturned. His reasoning, to those uninitiated in the peculiarities of California, relies upon the Golden State’s unique Leonard Law, which requires its non-religious private universities to act as if they are bound by the First Amendment.