"[n]o student shall engage in lewd, indecent or obscene conduct or expression, regardless of proximity to campus."

You’re probably wondering what it is that I’m quoting there. Well, stop wondering! It’s the speech code of the James Madison University, which happens to have reached the coveted spot of FIRE’s Speech Code of the Month.

Cue fanfare:

JMU's policy on "Obscene Conduct" provides that "[n]o student shall engage in lewd, indecent or obscene conduct or expression, regardless of proximity to campus." (Emphasis added.) Torch readers may already be familiar with this policy, because we blogged about it several weeks ago. Our post caught the attention of student reporters at JMU, who have published several articles in the student paper The Breeze since our post first appeared. The first article, on Sept. 24, expressed FIRE's concern that this broadly worded policy could be used to punish a great deal of student expression, including expression taking place online in e-mails or on sites like Facebook. Because "lewd" and "indecent" have no defined legal meaning, they could be interpreted to include almost any crude or vulgar language that someone found offensive, most of which would nonetheless be constitutionally protected. The policy allows for punishment of lewd and indecent expression on or off campus, so virtually everything that students say or write is fair game—and I would venture to guess that college students use plenty of crude and vulgar language on Facebook and elsewhere.
In the same article, JMU Director of Judicial Affairs Josh Bacon sought to allay concerns that this policy would be applied to expression. He said that a recent change to the policy's language, extending its reach to off-campus activities, was a response to "an off-campus incident last semester that left the judicial council unable to charge the student offender. The student in question was reportedly as peeping into off-campus students' windows and masturbating in front of them."

Yeah, O.K. Fair enough. But what exactly does peeking into dormitories and masturbating have to do with expression? Unless, of course, I’m way out of the artistic loop.

Again, the key question here is this: if all the university wants to do is regulate conduct, why does the policy apply to both conduct and expression? The most stunning answer to this question comes from the now-familiar Josh Bacon of JMU's Judicial Affairs office. Today, Bacon told the Breeze that "It's an interpretation of how you say expression; is it physical expression? Again, to me, it says obscene conduct, not obscene expression." But of course, as anyone who can read the policy knows, what it says is "obscene conduct or expression." It is impossible to know why the JMU administration is digging in its heels and standing behind this language if its only true interest is in prohibiting already illegal conduct such as public masturbation and urination.

( Once again, you can read it all here ). Ah, well there you have it in a nutshell. Unless Mr. Bacon has gone the way of the American congress and has decided to not really bother with reading the policies that he’s charged with over-seeing, one has two questions to ask themselves:

• Is the Judicial Affairs office of James Madison University so obtuse as to think that the word ‘expression’ could stand in place of the words ‘physical expression’? And, if not,
• What possible motivation could James Madison University have to exert control over the speech of their students?

Censors are just horrible at covering up their motivations. Perhaps that’s why they get into the censorship biz in the first place.