Pro-life teenager released from charges by university

Pro-life teenager released from charges by university

A South Dakota teenager who spoke about pro-life issues on a college campus before being arrested for failure to leave has had the charges against him dismissed by a state attorney.

Stephen Wesolick, an attorney for 18-year-old Joey Cox, says his client was a member of a team from the California-based Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust group, which came to South Dakota School of Mines & Technology as part of its "Campus Life Tours Project." Cox was arrested on campus May 8 after his arrival because of a policy that allegedly required previous permission through a two-week notice for free-speech activities on campus.

"Mr. Cox was arrested, and charges were brought against him as a Class 1 misdemeanor, in which he faced up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine," Wesolick says. However a state attorney dismissed the charges against Cox.

The order dismissing the charges states it was "in the best interests of justice" to do so, Wesolick notes. He says he thinks the state attorney made that decision because the school was enforcing what the attorney terms an unconstitutional policy. "Free speech is a protected right under the Constitution and does not require adherence to this type of school policy," he asserts.

Joey Cox "acted entirely within his rights," Wesolick insists. "It's our position that the Constitution does not require individuals to obtain permission before they exercise their First Amendment rights," he says, "and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology clearly silenced Mr. Cox under a policy that was unconstitutional on its face and as applied to his situation."

Also, Wesolick says the university misapplied another of its policies that governs the solicitation of goods and services by applying it to Cox's religious and political free speech rights. The attorney feels the charges against his client were properly dismissed by the state attorney.