Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A Very Strange First Amendment Case

I kinda lean toward FIRE's stance here, but the dude's still a creep.  I'm not sure psychological counseling and 3 semesters of expulsion are appropriate at all:
A Michigan college student who was suspended for writing an essay called "Hot For Teacher" had no First Amendment right to express his sexual attraction to his creative writing professor, a federal judge ruled. 

The lawsuit filed by the student, Joseph Corlett, 57, against Oakland University was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan on Tuesday...

Corlett, a licensed residential builder, decided to pursue a college degree full-time in 2011 due to the economic downturn, according to the federal complaint.

He said he was under the impression that there were no restrictions on what he could write about in his journal for his creative writing class.

Corlett turned in the journal, containing the essay, in November 2011, and was shortly thereafter called into the dean's office for a meeting.

In January 2012, after a campus hearing, the university, located in Rochester, Mich., found Corlett guilty of intimidation. Another charge, for sexual harassment, was dropped. Corlett was suspended for three semesters, banned from stepping foot on campus and required to seek out psychological counseling before he could be eligible to re-enroll, according to his federal complaint.

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