IU prepares for free speech battle

A U.S. District Court judge in Indianapolis will hear arguments in a civil rights lawsuit filed against IU by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. The suit was filed after the University restricted the Center from setting up the Genocide Awareness Project, a display of images depicting aborted fetuses, in the area behind Woodburn Hall.\nThe Center, based in Mission Hills, Calif., attempted to bring GAP to IU last April. Gregg Cunningham, director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, said the visit was canceled when the University denied a request to set up the display in the field behind Woodburn Hall. Instead, the University asked that GAP use Dunn Meadow for the two-day presentation.\n"IU is the first school where we could not come to an agreement about where to set up the display," Cunningham said. "But the University will not even negotiate with us. They have taken the position of go to Dunn Meadow or go to jail."\nCunningham said IU is the first time the group has ever had to take legal action to bring the display to campus. The group has been to about 28 other college campuses, including Penn State and Ohio State.\nA judge was scheduled to hear the lawsuit yesterday. It was rescheduled because John Tinder, the judge assigned to the case, is married to IU's trial counsel, Jan Carroll. \n"Jan has been advising us and it was just the luck of the draw that it ended up in her husband's court," said Kiply Drew, associate University counsel.\nCunningham said the rescheduling forced GAP to again put off coming to IU, which they had planned to do this week.\n"I'm not sure what the University's motive was but the case was reassigned and rescheduled," he said. "Now it is much more likely that we will come for a much longer period of time than originally announced. Depending on the outcome (of the suit) we may be forced to reach the University community using approaches that would not have been our first preference."\nAt the hearing, IU and GAP will have the chance to present their cases. Drew said since the Center for Bio Ethical Reform filed a preliminary injunction, there was exchanging of papers or taking of depositions on the part of both sides involved. The judge will then make a ruling or take the case under advisement. \nDrew said she doesn't expect the judge to make a ruling in favor of one side tomorrow. Both sides will have the option of appealing any decision to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals based in Chicago.\nCunningham called the Woodburn Hall area a place that is "commonly used for First Amendment activity" and said the area is also preferable because it attracts two and a half times the traffic of Dunn Meadow.\nJim Gibson, assistant dean of students, said the Woodburn Hall area is not a designated free speech area and that the group will receive full University support if they choose to display in Dunn Meadow.\n"They are allowed to come here right now," he said. "I worked hard last spring with the two student organizations who were going to sponsor the project and I also worked with student groups when they were going to come this fall."\nIf the judge rules in the University's favor, Cunningham said the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform is considering several other options to show the GAP project at IU. Some of these options are mass mailings to students, faculty and staff and displaying the images on the sides of trucks, which will then be driven through campus.\n"We intentionally purchased trucks capable of lawful operation on surface streets," Cunningham said. "Huge billboard images of aborted babies can be affixed to the sides of the trucks."\nOther options, which Cunningham calls "creative" and legal, for disseminating the information are now being under review at the Center.\n"One promise we can make to the community are that these images are going to come to your campus," he said. "If we lose, instead of being there 48 short hours, we going to be there much longer and much more invasively."\nCunningham said he expects a community outcry from more invasive methods of dissemination.\n"We don't want the blame," he said. "We want them to put the blame where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of (IU President) Myles Brand."\nGibson disagreed with this statement.\n"Anyone who admits to using an invasive form of getting a message out is responsible for that invasive message," he said. "If CBR is using the methods, then CBR is responsible"