A victory for free speech on campus.  For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with the Point.

Free speech can cost you—especially if you try to deny someone else their right to free speech.

That’s what a Fresno State University professor should have learned when he and several of his students tried to erase pro-life chalk messages placed on the school sidewalk by Fresno State Students for Life.

When a Student for Life confronted him (calmly), he told her that she wasn’t a so-called “free speech zone.” Well, the campus hadn’t had a free speech zone since 2015, and when the student told him she had official university permission to write the messages, he began to erase a message with his foot.

Happily, one judge wasn’t buying it. He fined the professor $17,000 and ordered him to undergo First Amendment training provided by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

The teacher hasn’t admitted wrong-doing and says he’ll take the training because he loves to “hear other peoples’ thoughts and opinions.”

That’s good. Let’s hope he—and many other professors like him—will listen.