Former members of Oklahoma's SAE chapter plan to sue
The former Oklahoma chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is planning to pursue legal action against the university.
The group, which is no longer a recognized chapter at the university or within the SAE fraternal organization, has retained high-profile attorney Stephen Jones, who served as Timothy McVeigh’s lead defense attorney during the Oklahoma City Bombing trial.
The SAE chapter was closed Monday after a video depicting some of the fraternity’s members participating in a racist chant surfaced on the Internet. The video created outrage across the country and sparked protests across campus. The Oklahoma football team has not practiced all week and instead has worn black and used practice time for prayer as a form of silent protest.
Two of the SAE members were expelled for what university president David Boren called their “leadership role in leading a racist and exclusionary chant.” Two SAE members already have issued public apologies.
Jones told KTUL.com that the fraternity is considering its legal options, including legal action against Boren. Jones claims Boren painted the entire chapter as racist when the video depicted only some of the chapter’s members participating in the chant. He told the Oklahoman he has been hired by a board of alumni who oversee the OU chapter of the fraternity.
He said the board hired him Thursday after an emergency meeting and he is reviewing paperwork before deciding what legal steps he might take. He said no decision has been made yet on whether to sue the university or Boren. He also said he has not been hired by two fraternity members who were expelled.
However, one of the expelled students, Parker Rice, said other older members taught the racist chant to the fraternity. The national SAE organization supported the closure of the chapter and the expulsion of the students. It also disputed the claim that the chant was learned.
From the moment the students were expelled, legal analysts from around the country weighed in on whether they would have a valid lawsuit on the grounds of protected First Amendment speech.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California at Irvine told the Washington Post on Tuesday that “the students could bring a suit based on the First Amendment challenging their expulsion. Based on what we know from the media, I think they would have an excellent chance of succeeding.”
The argument is that because the University of Oklahoma is a publicly funded entity, it’s like the state government punishing these students, which is against their First Amendment rights.
However, the school could challenge that these students broke the university’s Student Rights and Responsibilities Code, which lists “abusive conduct” as “prohibitive conduct.”
Abusive conduct is defined as “unwelcome conduct that is sufficiently severe and pervasive that it alters the conditions of education or employment and creates an environment that a reasonable person would find intimidating, harassing or humiliating.”
With the amount of protests and continued calls for investigation and further expulsions, including a strongly-worded statement released by the football team Thursday, the university could claim that its students felt the fraternity created an “intimidating, harassing or humiliating” environment.
Jones has taken on the University of Oklahoma before. In 1970, he represented a student who carried a Vietcong flag during an anti-war protest. The student was arrested for displaying a pro-communist flag. Jones told CNN the suit was ultimately settled.
The Washington Post notes that there’s a precedent that could play in the expelled student’s favor. In 1991, Sigma Chi sued George Mason University in Virginia for what it claimed was an infringement on its civil liberties. The fraternity held an “ugly woman” contest in the student union that many other students deemed sexist and racist. Students protested the contest and the school administration suspended the frat’s activities for the 1991 spring semester and placed it on probation for two years. The fraternity sued and a trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of the fraternity stating that it couldn’t infringe on the fraternity’s constitutional rights even in an attempt “to maintain a harmonious campus.”
The Washington Post did note that this precedent is not binding in the state of Oklahoma.
For more Oklahoma news, visit SoonerScoop.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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