The law—which states a licensed holder may carry a concealed handgun on university campuses—took effect Aug. 1.
The professors—Jennifer Lynn Glass, Lisa Moore and Mia Carter—filed a request for a preliminary injunction July 22 arguing the following:
- The part of the campus carry law that states it must “give the person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited so that they may act accordingly” is unconstitutionally vague.
- The law infringes on professors’ first amendment right of academic freedom. They write in the request classroom discussion will be “circumscribed by the near-certain presence of loaded guns,” and their ability to “make [their classrooms] truly a marketplace for the robust exchange of ideas will be impaired.”
- There is no rational basis for requiring professors at public universities to allow licensees to carry handguns in classrooms when professors at private universities are not subject to the same requirement and for allowing handguns in some areas of campus but not others.
U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel said in his opinion Monday the professors failed to prove their arguments would succeed in court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who agreed with the denial, said he was pleased with the judgment.
“There is simply no legal justification to deny licensed, law-abiding citizens on campus the same measure of personal protection they are entitled to elsewhere in Texas,” he said in a news release.
The decision came two days before the university’s fall semester begins Wednesday.
