The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest [text, PDF] Thursday on behalf of two conservative student groups at the University of California, Berkeley [official website] who are suing the school for violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech, due process and equal protection.

The complaint [text, PDF] was filed by the Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) and the Young American’s Foundation (YAF) [advocacy websites] alleging the University adopted a double standard toward campus speech, applying a more restrictive set of rules to BCR ultimately resulting in the cancellation of two speaking engagements featuring prominent conservative speakers in the month of April, 2017. The University has filed a motion to dismiss.

In voicing their support, the DOJ stated that the US has “a significant interest in the vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms in institutions of higher learning. As the Supreme Court has noted, ‘[t]eachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die.’ In recent years, however, many institutions of higher education have failed to answer this call, and free speech has come under attack on campuses across the country.”

The statement continues that “such a failure is of grave concern because…this sort of hazardous freedom-this kind of openness-that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.” The court should therefore deny the University’s motion to dismiss.

Congress delegated the authority to DOJ to submit statements of interest under 28 USC § 517 [statute, PDF], which authorizes the Attorney General “to attend to the interests of the United States in a suit pending in a court of the United States.”

This marks the third statement of interest filed by DOJ in a First Amendment case under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.