Florida Senate - 2018 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT Bill No. SB 1234 Ì101332gÎ101332 LEGISLATIVE ACTION Senate . House Comm: RCS . 02/07/2018 . . . . ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— The Committee on Education (Baxley) recommended the following: 1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment) 2 3 Delete lines 30 - 90 4 and insert: 5 public technical center, state university, law school, medical 6 school, dental school, or Florida College System institution as 7 defined in s. 1000.21. 8 (2) RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH ACTIVITIES.— 9 (a) Expressive activities protected under this section 10 include, but are not limited to, any lawful verbal or written 11 means by which an individual may communicate ideas to others, 12 including all forms of peaceful assembly, protests, speeches, 13 and guest speakers; distributing literature; carrying signs; 14 circulating petitions; and the recording and publication, 15 including Internet publication, of video or audio recorded in 16 outdoor areas of campus of public institutions of higher 17 education. 18 (b) A person who wishes to engage in an expressive activity 19 in the outdoor areas of campus of a public institution of higher 20 education may do so freely, spontaneously, and contemporaneously 21 as long as the person’s conduct is lawful and does not 22 materially and substantially disrupt the functioning of the 23 public institution of higher education. 24 (c) The outdoor areas of campus of a public institution of 25 higher education that accept federal funding are considered 26 traditional public forums. A public institution of higher 27 education may create and enforce restrictions that are 28 reasonable and content-neutral on time, place, and manner of 29 expression and that are narrowly tailored to a significant 30 institutional interest. Restrictions must be clear, be 31 published, and provide for ample alternative means of 32 expression. 33 (d) A public institution of higher education may not 34 designate any area of campus as a free speech zone or otherwise 35 create policies restricting expressive activities to a 36 particular area of campus. 37 (e) Students, faculty, or staff of a public institution of 38 higher education may not materially disrupt previously scheduled 39 or reserved activities on campus occurring at the same time. 40 (3) CAUSE OF ACTION; DAMAGES.— 41 (a) The Attorney General or a person whose expressive 42 rights are violated by an action prohibited under this section 43 may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction against 44 the public institution of higher education to recover 45 compensatory damages plus court costs and a reasonable attorney 46 fee. If the court finds that a violation of this section 47 occurred, the court shall award the aggrieved party at least 48 $500 for each violation or shall award compensatory damages. 49 (b) Excluding reasonable court costs and attorney fees, the 50 total compensatory damages available to a plaintiff in a case 51 arising from a single violation of this section may not exceed 52 $100,000. If there are multiple plaintiffs, the court shall 53 divide the damages equally among the plaintiffs until the 54 maximum award is exhausted. 55 (4) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—A person aggrieved by a 56 violation of this section must bring suit no later than 1 year 57 after the date the cause of action accrues. For the purpose of 58 calculating the 1-year limitation period, each day that a 59 violation of this section persists or each day that a policy in 60 violation of this section remains in effect constitutes a new 61 violation and, therefore, a new day that the cause of action 62 accrues. 63 Section 3. Paragraphs (c) and (d) are added to subsection 64 (10) of section 1009.24, Florida Statutes, to read: 65 1009.24 State university student fees.— 66 (10) 67 (c) In the interest of preserving viewpoint neutrality in 68 the allocation of activity and service fees, a student 69 government organization that receives a request for activity and 70 service fee funding from a recognized student organization must 71 provide a written explanation to the recognized student 72 organization regarding its funding determination. 73 (d) Each student government association shall maintain on 74 its website an organized record of the funding requests and 75 awards it receives and disburses. The record must contain the 76 name of each organization that requested funds, the amount the 77 organization requested, the amount the organization received, 78 and the written explanation required in paragraph (c). The 79 record must be displayed prominently on the student government 80 association’s website. 81 82 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================ 83 And the title is amended as follows: 84 Delete line 10 85 and insert: 86 providing a statute of limitations; amending s. 87 1009.24, F.S.; requiring student government 88 associations to provide specified information to 89 recognized student organizations that request funding; 90 requiring the organizations to maintain and 91 prominently display on their websites certain 92 information regarding such funding requests; providing 93 an