## Facts

- A recognized student group at Auburn University invited Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr., an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, to speak on campus.
- The Public Affairs Seminar Board, a chartered student-faculty body, approved the invitation and allocated student-fee funds for Coffin’s honorarium and expenses.
- At the time, Auburn had no formal rules governing eligibility of outside speakers; the Board typically approved requests and allocated funds.
- Auburn’s president, Dr. Harry M. Philpott, barred Coffin from speaking and refused to authorize payment.
- After the Board’s approval, Philpott drafted speaker rules barring (1) speakers expected to advocate breaking the law and (2) speakers convicted of a felony; Coffin had a felony conviction related to anti-war activity.
- Philpott conceded he was not concerned Coffin’s appearance would lead to violence or unrest.
- Students and faculty sued as a class in federal court seeking an injunction to allow the speech and require payment under the approved arrangement; the district court granted relief.

## Issues

1. Whether a state university president may bar an invited speaker, absent preexisting content-neutral speaker rules, based on anticipated advocacy of lawbreaking and the speaker’s felony conviction.
2. Whether students and faculty at a public university have a First Amendment right to receive information and ideas (a “right to hear”) that limits ad hoc exclusion of speakers.
3. Whether preventing anticipated advocacy justifies prior restraint without a showing meeting the incitement standard for imminent lawless action.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed the injunction.
- Auburn’s president was restrained from interfering with Coffin’s scheduled appearance.
- The university was required to pay the approved honorarium and travel expenses.
- The court held that the First Amendment, applied through the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the right of students and faculty to hear invited speakers selected through established campus procedures.
- The asserted justification (possible advocacy of lawbreaking and felony status) did not support suppression absent a constitutionally sufficient showing of incitement.

## Legal Principles

- The First Amendment protects not only speaking but also the right to receive information and ideas, including on a public university campus.
- Public universities may regulate campus events through reasonable time, place, and manner controls, but may not impose ad hoc content-based exclusions without adequate constitutional justification.
- Advocacy may be suppressed as incitement only if it is directed to producing imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action; speculative concern about advocacy is insufficient.
- Post hoc rules adopted to block a particular speaker are constitutionally suspect where no preexisting neutral standards governed speaker eligibility.

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit held that Auburn University could not block an invited speaker approved through campus procedures or deny payment for the event based on the speaker’s views or felony conviction, absent neutral rules and a showing that the speech would amount to incitement to imminent lawless action; students and faculty had a protected First Amendment right to hear the speaker.


Brooks v. Auburn Univ., 412 F.2d 1171 (5th Cir. 1969)