OP, it
is legal because the First Amendment only protects your rights to free speech and expression from GOVERNMENT action. That protection doesn't extend to private organizations...that includes your particular sorority (both your chapter and the national organization, if applicable), your college Panhellenic council, the NPC, and possibly your university (if it is a private university, versus a state university). When I say "private" organizations, I mean literally any and every group that is not run or funded by the state or national government. The reason that the protection doesn't extend to those private organizations is because you have opted to be a part of those organizations...you chose what college to go to and you chose to join a sorority (and that choice came with membership in your college Panhellenic, and the NPC if you are in a national organization). Opting into your college and your sorority membership, you get special benefits. Sometimes those benefits are going to come with heightened responsibilities or restrictions, based on the policies of that special group. The government's take on it is that your rights are protected well enough by the fact that you can quit or leave whatever group you have associated yourself with whenever you choose, for whatever reasons you see fit.
/Law student rant over.
Previous posters are right: your remedy in this situation is to determine what avenues are open to you to change or at least work within the restriction. I would suggest first getting explicit clarification from the university/office of student activities/your college Panhellenic council/whoever is imposing this regulation as to what exact is being "banned." Is it t-shirts or posters reading "Rush XYZ!" worn or posted by sorority women that are not allowed? Is it joining Recruitment Facebook groups set up by the fraternities to recruit potential new members? Is it any sorority woman attending fraternity parties or events during recruitment? Is the restriction limited just to the time period that Recruitment is actively going on, or is it a year-long thing? Are you allowed to have pictures on Facebook of you and your fiance if neither of you are wearing letters or insignia? It seems like this policy has been presented to you in a vague manner (or maybe you just didn't get into all the details in your post, which is fine), so if that's the case, you need to get clarification. It may turn out that it's not as restrictive or as big of a deal as you thought it was- if you just have to remove pictures of your organization holding events with the fraternities for the duration of Rush Week, is that the biggest imposition ever? Is it a little annoying? Maybe. But women who serve as Rho Gammas/Gamma Chis or are on the Panhellenic Executive Board are asked to do essentially the same thing (remove anything from their profile that indicates what sorority they are in) with their Facebooks for the duration of Sorority Recruitment as well. My point is...once you get clarification from the powers-that-be as to what is
actually off limits, it may end up being simply a minor inconvenience, as opposed to an oppressive restriction on the way you can express yourself.
I think it's great that you are so supportive of your fiance's chapter; not everyone is lucky enough to have a partner that supports the things that are important to them. Presumably, the fact that you have selected an XYZ man as having the qualities you want in a future husband speaks well to the other members of XYZ and the chapter as a whole also. Let them sell those great points to the potential new members coming to their Rush events themselves!
Threaded Mode
