“The First Amendment means very little if public officials can have someone arrested simply because others would rather not hear his message”
Tampa, Fla. — The Center for American Liberty (@Liberty_Ctr) has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against University of South Florida officials on behalf of a disabled U.S. Army veteran who was arrested while expressing his religious beliefs about abortion at a public campus event and subsequently banned from the university’s Tampa campus for one year.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges that USF officials violated Tyler Newton’s First Amendment rights to free speech and religious exercise. It challenges university policies that allow event organizers to restrict expression in outdoor campus spaces and seeks an injunction against a no-trespass order barring Newton from campus through Sept. 23, 2027.
Newton, a medically retired Army veteran and Christian anti-abortion advocate from Pinellas County, attended USF’s Bull Market on Sept. 23. The Bull Market is a recurring outdoor event at the Marshall Student Center Plaza where student organizations, nonprofits and vendors interact with visitors. The event is free and open to the public.
Newton stood in a tree-lined area away from vendor booths and pedestrian walkways, holding a sign displaying an image of a fetus and the message, “What about her body and her rights?” He spoke with willing passersby and recorded his activity using a camera on a tripod. He did not obstruct walkways, harass attendees, use amplification, or disrupt the event.
Approximately 20 minutes after Newton began speaking, Matt Marshall, director of the Marshall Student Center, approached him and instructed him to leave the event area. Marshall cited USF Policy 6-028, which treats spaces reserved for events as nonpublic during the reservation period.
According to video footage cited in the complaint, Marshall told Newton that event organizers “don’t want (your First Amendment activity) happening within their reservation and they have that choice.”
Newton declined to leave, asserting his constitutional right to speak in a public forum. USF police officers subsequently arrested and handcuffed him. He was charged with trespass upon school grounds after notice and resisting an officer without violence, the latter arising from his refusal to provide identification. Newton was transported to the county jail, where he remained for approximately 14 hours before his release.
Both criminal charges were dismissed Oct. 9. The separate university-issued no-trespass order prohibits Newton from entering the entire USF Tampa campus until September 2027, including to visit his brother, a USF student, or to watch his brother’s on-campus band performances.
“This case is not about whether anyone agrees with Tyler’s views on abortion,” said Mark Trammell, (@mark_trammell) CEO of the Center for American Liberty. “The First Amendment means very little if public officials can have someone arrested simply because others would rather not hear his message. If a university can turn a public plaza into a speech-free zone whenever an event organizer objects, the rights of every controversial speaker are at risk.”
The lawsuit raises questions about the interaction between university event reservation policies and Florida’s Campus Free Expression Act, enacted in 2018. The law designates generally accessible outdoor areas of public university campuses as traditional public forums for expressive activity, including expression by individuals who are not university students or employees.
The Center for American Liberty argues that USF cannot circumvent those protections by declaring an otherwise public outdoor area reserved and allowing event organizers unrestricted discretion to determine who may speak there.
The complaint challenges USF Policy 6-028 and Regulation USF4.0140, which governs campus no-trespass orders, alleging that the policies permit unconstitutional restrictions on speech and religious exercise. It also alleges that the no-trespass regulation is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.
In an accompanying emergency motion, the Center for American Liberty argues that “the First Amendment does not permit a public university to exclude speakers from a traditional public forum just because the event organizer would rather not hear what they have to say.”
The lawsuit names USF President Moez Limayem, Marshall, university police leadership and members of the university’s Board of Trustees as defendants in their official capacities.
Alongside the complaint, the Center for American Liberty filed a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent USF from enforcing its policies and campus ban against Newton during the Oct. 14 and Oct. 21 Bull Markets. The proposed relief would permit Newton to engage in peaceful expression without interfering with university operations or reserved vendor spaces.
“Public universities should be places where competing ideas are debated, not where administrators decide which opinions deserve to be heard,” Trammell said. “The government’s response to peaceful disagreement should never be handcuffs and banishment. A free society depends on protecting speech precisely when that speech is unpopular.”