A U.S. district judge has denied a request for a preliminary injunction in the case of three University of Texas professors opposed to campus carry. The liberal arts professors filed the suit in June, saying guns in the classroom could have a “chilling effect” on discussion of controversial topics such as abortion.
But on Monday, Judge Earl Yeakel III ruled the merits of that argument weren’t strong enough to block implementation of campus carry while the case goes forward. “The court has searched the jurisprudence of this country from the ratification of the Constitution forward and found no precedent for Plaintiff’s proposition that there is a right of academic freedom so broad that … their concerns override decisions of the legislature and the governing body of the institution that employs them,” Yeakel said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had called the case frivolous, said he was “pleased, but not surprised” with the court’s decision. “There is simply no legal justification to deny licensed, law-abiding citizens on campus the same measure of personal protection they are entitled to elsewhere in Texas,” Paxton said.
