Caroline Simon

USA TODAY

When Kevin Shaw tried to distribute copies of the U.S. Constitution in Spanish on his college campus, he was reprimanded by an administrator.

The administrator told him he would need to distribute the Constitution in a designated area, and only after obtaining a permit to do so. If he didn’t comply, he would be removed from campus.

Shaw attends Pierce College, which is part of the Los Angeles Community College District. According to Pierce’s free speech policy, students can only distribute materials in a prescribed location on campus — a 616-square-foot area comprising .003% of Pierce’s total campus — and only after receiving permission to do so.

Shaw is now suing LACCD, claiming that his First Amendment rights were violated.

“We’re passing out copies of our founding document,” he said. “What could be more innocuous?”

The lawsuit was filed by Arthur Willner, a partner at Leader & Berkon LLP, in partnership with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education, an organization that advocates for freedom of speech on college campuses.

“The effect of such free speech zones is to prevent students from interacting with their peers and having the opportunity to be exposed to new ideas,” Brynne Madway, an associate attorney at FIRE, said in an email. “We should be encouraging students to speak with their peers and learn from them. We shouldn't confine students to tiny boxes.”

Free speech zones date back to the 1960s and 1970s, when on-campus protests, mainly against the Vietnam War, became popular. The zones are typically located in areas that won't disrupt classes, and require students to give the administration advance notice of activities.

In recent years, free speech zones have come under fire — four states even have laws that ban public colleges and universities from establishing them. But according to a survey FIRE recently conducted of 450 top universities, Madway said, 1 in 10 had restrictive policies similar to LACCD's.

This particular lawsuit comes as free speech itself on college campuses becomes an increasingly heated topic. Recently, events at University of California-Berkeley and Middlebury College have brought controversial conservative speakers into conflict with largely liberal college students, sparking protests and questions about whether students’ rights to feel safe outweighs speakers’ rights to free expression.

Willner said he’s seen an increase in restrictions on free expression over the past couple of decades, a phenomenon he attributes to people’s perceived rights to not be offended, or group rights that take precedence over individual rights.

“What makes this particular situation even more pernicious is the fact that even to utilize the free speech area, a student has to first submit an application for a permit,” he said. “It sort of defeats the entire purpose of the First Amendment and freedom of speech.”

Yusef Robb, a consultant for LACCD, said in a statement that “the Los Angeles Community College District firmly stands behind every student's right to free expression.”

Shaw hopes the lawsuit will force LACCD to change its policies so that future students will be able to exercise their First Amendment rights without limitation.

“I want to leave my school nicer than I found it,” he said. “My hope is that this policy won’t affect students in the future.”

Read next: To fight bias, colleges are employing literal speech police

Caroline Simon is a University of Pennsylvania student and a USA TODAY College correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.