A Michigan federal court dismissed an action after a community college in Michigan reached a settlement agreement with several students and a student organization who alleged that the college and officials at the college violated their rights to free speech and equal protection. The students and the organization brought the lawsuit after campus police allegedly stopped the students from talking with other students at an open area on campus about fossil fuels and from offering “educational literature about the benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing” and collecting signatures to support fossil fuels. The campus police allegedly told the students that their expressive activities required approval by college administrators. The settlement agreement provided that the college would not enforce the advance permission requirements of its expressive activity policy for students and would undertake a revision of the policy. The college also agreed to pay $10,000 to Alliance Defending Freedom for the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs.

Lawsuit brought by students against community college alleging that the college violated the students' free speech and equal protection rights by barring them from engaging in expressive activity to promote fossil fuels without prior approval.

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) v. Macomb Community College

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Michigan Community College Reached Settlement with Students Whose Pro-Fossil Fuel Activities Were Halted 

Filed

United States of America

Michigan

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

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Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

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Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

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