Ruling
On February 27, 1995, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Peter G. Stone ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
Stone ruled that the Stanford speech code restricted more than just fighting words, by including insulting speech. Therefore, using the Leonard Law and Chaplinsky, the code was illegal. He ruled further that even if he accepted the argument that the speech code only restricted fighting words, it was still illegal using the Leonard Law and R. A. V. v. City of St. Paul as the code restricted speech based on content.
Stone also ruled that the Leonard Law was constitutional, essentially because it did not in any way restrict the speech of the university as a corporate entity. The university remained free to express its abhorrence of racial and other forms of prejudice. The Law expanded, rather than contracted, the range of legally permissible speech by protecting the free speech rights of students without abridging those of the university itself. To be able to express its own opposition to prejudice, it was not necessary for the university to have the power to prohibit speech with which it strongly disagreed.
Read more about this topic: Corry V. Stanford
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