ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan will not reinstate its Bias Response Team as part of a settlement with a nonprofit that had argued the team’s policies had the potential to interfere with open expression and alter students’ views.

The agreement was reached between UM and the Washington D.C.-based Speech First on Oct. 24-25. The settlement came about a month after a federal appeals court vacated a federal district judge’s ruling against the nonprofit, saying the Bias Response Team acts with the implicit threat of punishment and intimidation to quell speech on campus.

Per the settlement agreement, UM will keep in place the Campus Climate Support system it replaced the Bias Response Team with at the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year.

According to UM, Campus Climate Support focuses on addressing concerns that may create harm to members of the university community based on their identity, but it is not a disciplinary body, cannot impose discipline and does not require participation in any aspects of its work.

UM Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said a key difference between the Bias Response Team and Campus Climate Support is that the Bias Response Team would reach out to the subjects of reports on occasion.

“Campus Climate Support will not reach out to the subjects of reports,” Fitzgerald said. “The focus of this work is providing support, which has been the long-standing primary focus of this work. That support could take different forms, including directing members of our community to existing resources or organizations.”

Speech First has agreed to dismiss all claims against UM through the settlement. The lawsuit has been dismissed with no finding that UM policies infringed on free speech rights. No payments are involved in the settlement while both parties have agreed to bear their own legal fees.

Speech First filed the lawsuit in May 2018, claiming the Bias Response Team’s policies “capture staggering amounts of protected speech and expression.” The nonprofit membership association that works to combat restrictions on free speech at colleges and universities, represented three anonymous students in the lawsuit.

The students claimed their right to free speech had been chilled from speaking openly about their views on subjects including gun rights, illegal immigration, abortion, the welfare system, gender identity, affirmative action and Title IX.

The lawsuit alleged more than 150 reports of “expressions of bias,” through posters, fliers, social media, whiteboards, verbal comments and classroom behavior have been investigated by the university’s Bias Response Team since April 2017.

Speech First President Nicole Neily said the settlement gave the nonprofit the relief it initially requested: that UM agrees to never return to the “unconstitutional definitions” of “bullying” and “harassing,” and to never return to the Bias Response Team.

“In addition, we have reserved our rights to challenge the Campus Climate Support program in the future should the program ever be used to chill students’ speech,” Neily said. "This victory paves the way for college students who may have been too fearful or intimidated to express their opinions to finally embrace their free speech rights and engage in true academic discourse.”

Prior to the settlement, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel issued the majority opinion on Sept. 23, sending the case back to U.S. District Court, although it declined to instruct the lower court to issue a preliminary injunction to end the Bias Response Team.

In August 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Linda V. Parker issued a denial of Speech First’s request for a preliminary injunction against UM, and any actions UM takes to punish students for violations of the prohibitions on “harassment,” “bullying,” and “bias-related misconduct” set forth in the University’s Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

Parker sided with UM’s defense that the Bias Response Team is not a disciplinary body. Instead, its work is purely supportive and educational, and it works only with students “who agree to participate.”

But the appeals court opinion noted Speech First had standing to challenge the Bias Response Team because its members “face an objective chill based on the functions of the Response Team.”

“Speech First recognizes that the Response Team lacks any formal disciplinary power and that bias incidents are not directly punishable under the Statement, but maintains that the Response Team acts by way of implicit threat of punishment and intimidation to quell speech. We agree,” the appeals court ruled.

UM’s free speech policies had faced criticism from the U.S. Justice Department, which sided with Speech First in June 2018, claiming the university failed to live up to its principles of protecting free speech.

The same day, UM sought to provide clarity and standardized the definitions of bullying and harassing, both of which are prohibited under the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities and were at the heart of Speech First’s lawsuit.

UM streamlined the language by eliminating the dictionary definitions of “harassing” and “bullying” and leaving only definitions drawn from state law. Speech First agrees that the definitions are acceptable, per the settlement agreement.