Group Sues University of California Alleging Its Sexual Harassment Policy Violates Free Speech

Defending Education sued the University of California on Thursday, June 18, 2026, alleging that the university’s Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment policy violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The lawsuit claims the policy functions as a speech code that punishes students for engaging in protected speech and discourages expression outside the university-approved mainstream.

It states that the university uses the policy to coerce students’ speech on matters of public concern.

The University of California requires all employees and students to complete mandatory “Sexual Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education” training. ” The policy lists the “intentional or repeated use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s gender identity” as a form of harassment.

It defines a “dead-name” as “the name that a transgender person was given at birth but that they no longer use,” and states that a student who uses a trans-identifying man’s dead-name is liable for punishment.

The policy also lists the use of jokes about a person’s sexual orientation as harassment. Students who “laugh at a student for ‘acting gay’” are liable for punishment, the manual says. Prohibited conduct can occur “off University property and outside the context of a University program or activity” if it has “adverse effects” on the campus environment.

The policy manual states that the university “would prefer” not to implement many of the pre-Biden-era Title IX regulations reimplemented by President Donald Trump’s administration in 2025. It notes that the Trump administration regulations rest on the “basis of biological sex” and that the university abides by the regulations “only when required” for fear of receiving federal funding cuts.