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Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University
1984 U.S. court case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University, 737 F.2d 1317 (5th Cir. 1984)[1] is a court case in which the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the First Amendment required public universities to recognize student organizations aimed at gay students. In 1976, Texas A&M University denied official recognition to the Gay Student Services Organization on the grounds that homosexuality was illegal in Texas, and the group's stated goals—offering referral services and providing educational information to students—were actually the responsibility of university staff. The students sued the university for violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of speech in February 1977. For six years, the case wound its way through the courts; although the trial court ruled in favor of Texas A&M several times, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly overturned the verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case, letting stand the circuit court ruling that the students' free speech rights had been compromised.
Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University | |
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Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit |
Full case name | Gay Student Services, J.M. Minton, Keith Stewart and Patricia Wooldridge, Plaintiffs-Appellants v. Texas A&M University, et al., Defendants-Appellees |
Decided | August 3, 1984 |
Docket nos. | 82-2366 |
Citation | 737 F.2d 1317 |
Case history | |
Prior history | 612 F.2d 160 (5th. Cir. Feb. 20, 1980) |
Subsequent history | Petition for certiorari denied, 471 U.S. 1001 (1985) 635 F. Supp. 776 (N.D. Tex. 1986) |
Court membership | |
Judges sitting | John Robert Brown, Thomas Morrow Reavley, Jerre Stockton Williams |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Brown, joined by Reavley, Williams |
Laws applied | |
First Amendment |