From today's Tenth Circuit decision in Speech First, Inc. v. Shrum, written by Judge Harris Hartz and joined by Judges Nancy Moritz and Veronica Rossman:
Speech First, Inc. is a nationwide organization that describes its mission to include the protection of free speech on college and university campuses. When Oklahoma State University (OSU) implemented three schoolwide policies that allegedly chilled protected speech, Speech First filed suit in federal court on behalf of its OSU student members against OSU President Kayse Shrum. Three members each submitted a pseudonymous declaration (using the names Student A, Student B, and Student C) describing how the policies allegedly inhibited his or her constitutionally protected expression.
The sole issue before us on appeal is whether the use of pseudonyms by the declarants precluded Speech First from establishing Article III standing to bring this action. On a motion by President Shrum, the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma dismissed the suit for lack of standing, ruling that the United States Supreme Court in Summers v. Earth Island Institute (2009), held that for an organization to have standing it must identify by name at least one member who would have standing to personally bring the claim.
We disagree with the district court. Longstanding and well-established doctrine in the federal courts establishes that anonymous persons may have standing to bring claims. Anonymity was not even an issue before the Supreme Court in Summers. Although one might read language in that opinion to require that only persons identified by their legal names can have standing, that was clearly not the intent of the Court. The opinion provided no hint, much less an emphatic statement, that it was abrogating decades of precedent….
