Freedom of Speech FAQs

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right of persons to speak without interference by or retaliation from the government, which includes public universities like UVA. This protection has its limits, as described below. Generally speaking, however, the First Amendment affords wide latitude for speech, including speech that many would see as offensive, hateful, or harassing. Its protection extends not only to verbal or written speech but also to symbols, art, music, expressive conduct, demonstrations, and other forms of communication. State law also affords legal protection to speech.

“Freedom of speech” is a broad term that may encompass not only First Amendment law but also values and norms. Private universities, for example, are not bound by the First Amendment, but many are nevertheless committed to free-speech values as a matter of principle. This is because ideals of academic freedom and advancement of knowledge provide still more reasons to protect free expression and free inquiry. As UVA’s Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry says:

"Free and open inquiry is the basis for the scientific method and all other modes of investigation that produce, expand, and refine knowledge. It is at the heart of the principles of academic freedom that protect faculty from interference with their research and their views. Likewise, the educational endeavor for students requires freedom to speak, write, inquire, listen, challenge, and learn, including through exposure to a range of ideas and cultivation of the tools of critical thinking and engagement. These tools are vital not only to students’ personal intellectual development but also to their futures as citizen leaders equipped to assess contending arguments and to contribute to societal progress."

As a public research university, the University of Virginia’s mission intersects with free expression in countless ways. Values of academic freedom and free inquiry define both scholarly research and classroom teaching. Students pursue their education through courses, research, and activities that expose them to new ideas and arguments. In laboratories, classrooms, lecture halls, exhibits, performance spaces, publications, organizations, and personal conversations, free expression pervades student education and University life. And because UVA is a public university, First Amendment law underlies the rules and practices for many University activities.

First Amendment law is complex and far-reaching: it informs many University functions, including regulation of expressive activity within University property and facilities, logistical operations for public speaking events, the independence of student organizations from the University, allocation of space and financial resources to student groups, institutional academic freedom, and the rights and responsibilities of University employees.

This FAQ addresses only the most frequently asked free-speech questions, but it is wise to assume that when the University or a University employee acts upon expressive activity, First Amendment law is likely relevant. This does not mean that the First Amendment protects all expressive activity at the University: it simply means that First Amendment doctrine governs what can be regulated and under what conditions.

Freedom of speech under the First Amendment has important limits. For example, it does not protect false and defamatory statements of fact, incitement to violent or unlawful action, threats, infringement of intellectual property rights, some privacy violations, and some types of explicit content. In addition, illegal conduct can be partially or entirely composed of speech, including stalking, harassment, conspiracy, and unlawful discrimination. 

The University may also regulate the time, place, and manner of expression for reasons unrelated to its content, including ensuring physical safety and maintaining normal University operations. In addition, while government employees have robust free-speech rights as private citizens, speech related to employees’ job duties is governed by separate principles set forth in constitutional case law. 

Limits to freedom of speech of the kinds listed here are defined by specific legal criteria. This means that the limits of freedom of speech are not in the eye of the beholder. Certain kinds of hateful, offensive, or even harmful speech may still be protected under law. 

Under First Amendment law, the University may regulate speech in ways that do not relate to its message. For instance, universities may set parameters for crowd capacity, volume levels, or use of amplified sound. Such parameters are sometimes called “time-place-manner regulations,” because they regulate features like the time, place, or manner of speech, rather than its content.

The First Amendment permits reasonable time-place-manner regulations because they exist to ensure that speech activities are compatible with each other and with all the other activities taking place in a community. For example, a city might have a first-come-first-served policy for reserving a park for expressive activity, in order to ensure that the park is not overcrowded with groups that drown each other out. The city might also have time parameters for when the park can be reserved and regulations on the use of amplified sound, so that expressive activity in the park is compatible with neighboring residential and commercial properties.

At a university, time-place-manner regulations exist to ensure that speaking events are compatible with regular University operations, including classroom instruction, other scheduled events and activities, research, patient care, student residential life, employee work routines, and the physical integrity of University facilities and property.

Likewise, the University has an obligation to protect the physical safety of all community members and may impose content-neutral time-place-manner regulations to do so. In addition, if the University identifies a serious threat of imminent physical harm, it may take appropriate action to protect against that threat. In such cases, it is the safety risk, not a speaker’s message, that is the basis for a decision to act.

See the Policies and Regulations page for links to relevant regulations, and pay particular attention to:

PRM-017: Duties Toward Speakers and Use of University Facilities or Property

SEC-039: Protests, Demonstrations, and Other Expressive Activities during Official University Ceremonies and Events held at the Academical Village

The University of Virginia and its employees are government actors. Students and student groups generally are not. (Exceptions involve students working as University employees and student organizations performing University functions, such as the Honor Committee, the University Judiciary Committee, and Student Council.) 

When the University regulates student organizations, it is a state actor that must respect the First Amendment rights of the organizations and their members. This means that the University may not dictate to student organizations what stances or viewpoints they adopt. It also may not control the membership of student organizations, other than to provide that they must abide by the University's non-discrimination policy. Nor may the University deny funding, space, official status, or other resources to a student organization on the basis of its viewpoint. Official student organization status may be based on content-neutral criteria, such as compliance with filing deadlines, financial regulations, and federal and state law, but it may not be predicated on the University’s approval of the organization’s viewpoint. 
 

The University may not dictate to student organizations whom they may invite to speak, just as it may not dictate to individual students what they may say. Doing so would violate the First Amendment rights of the organization and its members. Instead, the University seeks to ensure that any invited speaker is able to speak free from violence or disruption. University policy provides that no one may disrupt, or prevent others from seeing or hearing, an invited speaker.

By the same token, an invitation from a student group in no way implies the University’s endorsement of a speaker. The University hosts activities and events by the whole range of student organizations, without regard to viewpoint. The University does this not to endorse every viewpoint that is articulated, but to respect the independence of students and student groups.

As described above, freedom of speech has important limits. For example, it does not protect true threats, incitement, or conduct such as stalking, harassment, and unlawful discrimination. Nevertheless, such categories are narrowly and carefully drawn, and they do not include all potentially offensive speech. The University is committed to other core values in addition to free expression, including honor, integrity, trust, and respect for all individuals within the University community. It is possible for speakers to articulate claims or statements that contradict these core values but remain protected speech.

The presence of a speaker on Grounds is not an endorsement of their views. Rather, it is a recognition that the University (and, by extension, the state) does not dictate the terms of all discourse that occurs within it. Not only does the University have a legal obligation not to interfere with protected speech, but tolerance of speakers, even offensive speakers, also implicates core principles of academic freedom and free inquiry. Universities embrace free expression not because all ideas are equally good, but because they are not. At the core of the academic endeavor is the conviction that both good and bad ideas are best identified as such through rigorous examination, not suppression. It is for this reason that many private universities, which are not bound by the First Amendment, nevertheless articulate the same commitment to open debate and exchange. Universities may articulate their own values while meeting controversial, even repugnant, ideas with scrutiny rather than censorship.

Protests and demonstrations are speech protected by the First Amendment. Under University policy, protests and demonstrations must proceed in a manner that does not interfere with the ability of others to see or hear a scheduled speaker. Like other forms of speech, protests and demonstrations must follow any reasonable time, place, and manner regulations and ensure that scheduled events are not disrupted, University operations proceed as normal, and the physical safety of all community members is protected.

A great deal of incendiary or offensive speech is legally protected, but protection does have limits. If you witness threatening speech or behavior, contact the authorities. In situations where physical violence appears imminent or occurs, individuals should immediately call 911. Faculty, staff, students, Medical Center employees, patients, and visitors should report any violent or threatening behavior either to the University Police Department (UPD), Medical Center Security, Student Affairs, Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR), University Human Resources (UHR), Medical Center Human Resources (MCHR), Patient Safety and Risk Management, the Director of Threat Assessment or through UVA Just Report It.

The University’s free speech website includes more information, including the Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry and links to speech-related University policies. University students seeking more information or guidance about speech-related concerns may contact Student Affairs. Employees may reach out to the Provost’s Office or Human Resources.