So reports the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, with a link to a transcript of the group chat in which the speech being investigated took place; I appreciate that at this point the university is just investigating, but it seems to me that even investigations of such speech are unduly chilling of student discussions—especially when the investigations go on for a month (the university's Notice of Investigation is dated May 25).
Universities need to promptly reject such complaints in the first place, rather than starting a full-on "harassment" investigation process. Here's an excerpt from FIRE's press release:
Eight law students at American University are under investigation for participating in a heated back-and-forth following the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson draft opinion, after another student said their pro-choice commentary harassed and discriminated against him based on his religious, pro-life beliefs.
American's disciplinary investigation stems from a class group chat in which the accused students discussed the ramifications of Justice Alito's draft majority opinion overruling Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
"This is absurd. There's nothing even approaching harassment or discrimination in the chat," said Alex Morey, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. "American cannot let its process for investigating actual discrimination and harassment be weaponized to investigate students' opinions, but that's exactly what's happening here."
On May 2, in their class section's GroupMe chat, students criticized the leaked Supreme Court opinion and discussed options to protest and donate money to abortion advocacy groups.
One student, who later filed the harassment complaint, wrote that, "as a Republican, I find it insulting that conservatives would be thought of as overturning people's civil rights…"
Another student responded with: "Can we shut the fuck up about personal opinions while people process this?"
The self-identified conservative student later wrote:
