The ACLU has talked to Bellevue Community College officials on behalf of students kept out of last week's rally with Sen. Maria Cantwell and Barack Obama because they were wearing Mike McGavick T-shirts. ACLU Executive Director Kathleen Taylor wrote to the school:

The Constitution does not permit government officers (including the security staff and administrators of BCC) to decide which political viewpoints may be publicly expressed on campus and which may not.

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Moreover, the Obama event was part of the curriculum for many classes. Students are allowed to wear armbands, buttons, or T-shirts that express political viewpoints in the classroom. BCC could not bar students from a political science class simply because they wore T-shirts opposing the political views of the professor or a guest speaker. The same principle applies here, because the Obama event was an integral part of the curriculum for many BCC students. The College should seek to facilitate intellectual exchange, and it should not make a habit of closing campus doors on students eager to explore and lean about competing ideas.

Read the full letter here.