One of the more discouraging cultural developments of the past year has the been the steady migration of the debate over the meaning and definition of marriage from the world of discourse and electoral politics into outright threats, blacklisting, intimidation, and censorship. Strident political debate is one thing (after all, no one has a right to be treated civilly when expressing ideas); coercion is something else entirely.

It should come as no surprise that the battle over Prop 8 has moved to the campus. Yesterday, the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom (where I work) filed a lawsuit against officials from the Los Angeles Community College District on behalf of a young student named Jonathan Lopez. The entire complaint is worth reading, but the basics of the story are quite simple.

Shortly after election day, one of Lopez’s teachers told his speech class that any individual who voted for Proposition 8 was a “fascist bastard” and argued that supporters of traditional marriage valued animals more than people. A few weeks after this declaration, Mr. Lopez gave a speech (in response to an open-ended assignment) in which he discussed his Christian faith and read from a dictionary definition of marriage. His professor interrupted his presentation, called him a “fascist bastard,” invited offended students to leave, and then (when no one left) terminated the class. Rather than grade his speech, the professor told Lopez to “ask God” what his grade was.

That was not the end of the matter. When Lopez complained of his treatment to the dean, the professor threatened Lopez with expulsion. When Lopez sent a more formal demand letter (through counsel), the school responded with an assurance that a confidential disciplinary process would be initiated but then went out of its way to note that other students complained that Lopez was “preaching hate” and “spout[ing] hateful propaganda.”

These hate-speech comments were particularly ominous, considering that the Los Angeles Community College District has a rather oppressive speech code, which permits the school to punish “offensive” speech or speech that has an undefined “negative impact” on a student’s academic performance (one section of the school’s policies even permits punishment for mere “generalized sexist statements”).

So now Lopez is challenging the speech code and the actions taken against him, hopeful that all students on campus will enjoy greater freedom as a result of his case and that the debate over marriage will be just that, a debate–and not degenerate once again into a campaign of threats and censorship.