From Leichty v. Bethel College, decided April 20 by the Tenth Circuit (Judge Robert Bacharach, joined by Judges Bobby Baldock & Joel Carson):
This appeal involves the scope of rights that come with attendance at a conference. Upon paying the required fee, individuals obtain rights to attend the conference. But under what circumstances can the conference organizers expel attendees? And does expulsion subject individuals to arrest if they reappear at the conference? Here we conclude that purchase of a ticket created an irrevocable right to attend the conference. But once the attendee was expelled, his reappearance could support an arrest for trespass….
These issues arise from a two-day conference sponsored by Bethel College, which is a Mennonite college in the City of North Newton, Kansas. The subject of the conference was the Mennonites' role in the Holocaust.
Mr. Bruce Leichty paid the $100 attendance fee to attend the conference and planned to conduct his own program in the evening. At the evening program, Mr. Leichty and two associates would present "unusual perspectives on the Holocaust."
Before the conference had begun, Mr. Leichty distributed flyers about his own program. The organizers asked Mr. Leichty to stop distributing the flyers on the conference grounds. But Mr. Leichty refused to stop until the organizers called the police.
The conflicts resumed at the conference when Mr. Leichty stood to make a comment. One of the conference organizers reminded Mr. Leichty to stay on topic. Mr. Leichty then commented that Jewish people had different perspectives on the Holocaust. One of the conference organizers instructed someone to cut Mr. Leichty's microphone. Though his microphone had been cut, Mr. Leichty continued to speak about his upcoming program.
Later that day, another organizer of the conference told Mr. Leichty that he was "out of the conference." In front of Mr. Leichty, the organizer told a colleague to call the police if Mr. Leichty attended the next day.
Undeterred, Mr. Leichty returned the next day. The college president told him to leave, but Mr. Leichty refused. College officials called the police, who arrived and arrested Mr. Leichty for trespass. He then sued Bethel College and the City of North Newton.
The court concluded that, under Kansas law, Leichty's paying the $100 registration fee gave him a contractual right to attend the conference, and that ejecting him could breach that contract:
