Student sues Georgia college for preventing him from sharing his faith on campus

A student is suing the Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) after the school allegedly prohibited him from preaching on campus.

Chike Uzuegbunam filed his lawsuit on Monday with the help of the Christian non-profit legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

According to World Net Daily, Uzuegbunam sought to hand out literature and speak to other students about his faith at the plaza in front of the campus library, but he was stopped by college officials who said that he needed a permit to carry out the said activities on campus.

The college has two restricted "free speech" zones, but students are still required to submit any materials they want to distribute three days in advance. Students are allowed to use the zones only once every 30 days, and it is only available for use 18 hours a week.

ADF said that the zones are "ridiculously" small, and it only takes up less than 0.0015 percent of the campus.

Uzuegbunam received permission to share his faith in one of the restricted zones in August, but a campus police officer ordered him to stop after only 20 minutes because he had received complaints.

He was threatened with a charge of "disorderly conduct," and he was advised to share his faith in the manner of the members of the Latter Day Saints who conducts one-on-one proselytizing on campus.

Uzuegbunam was informed that GGC policy prohibits anyone from expressing a "fire and brimstone message" on campus, even within the "free speech" zones.

"Today's college students will be tomorrow's legislators, judges, commissioners, and voters," said ADF senior counsel Casey Mattox. "That's why it's so important that public universities model the First Amendment values they are supposed to be teaching to students, and why it should disturb everyone that GGC and many other colleges are communicating to a generation that the Constitution doesn't matter," Mattox went on to say.

Travis Barham, legal counsel for the ADF, said that every student's freedom of speech and religion is guaranteed by the First Amendment.

"Every public school—and especially a state college that is supposed to be the 'marketplace of ideas'—has the duty to protect and promote those freedoms," he added.