Education · Portland, OR Metro · August 28, 2026
Court Revives PSU Student's Free-Speech Suit Over Vaccine-Mandate Email
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a First Amendment lawsuit brought by former Portland State University student Cal Jamison McCollough against PSU and Provost Susan Jeffords, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. McCollough was suspended after sending a 2021 email to PSU's vaccine-mandate address stating he had a "sincerely held moral and religious objection" to the university's COVID-19 vaccination requirement, calling the vaccine "The Mark of the Beast," and using vulgar language toward Democratic officials. A unanimous three-judge panel reversed a district court's dismissal, ruling McCollough plausibly alleged retaliation for protected speech and that PSU officials are not entitled to immunity. The panel found the university's discipline did not fit any recognized category allowing schools to restrict student speech, comparing the case to the Supreme Court's landmark protection of a profane anti-draft jacket. The case now returns to district court for further proceedings. PSU has not been reported as commenting on the ruling.
Source: Hoodline
Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
This case matters to Bible-believing Christians because it involved a student who explicitly framed his objection to a government-adjacent mandate in religious terms, invoking biblical language, and was punished for it. Public universities increasingly treat expressions of religious or moral conscience — even when crudely worded — as disciplinary offenses rather than protected speech. The appellate court's ruling affirms that political and religious viewpoint speech, however distasteful in tone, retains First Amendment protection on public campuses. Christian students asserting conscience-based objections to institutional mandates should understand both the legal protections available to them and the wisdom of communicating convictions without needless vulgarity, which can obscure a legitimate religious-liberty claim.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. — Acts 5:29
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From the book
Educators reframe moral and cultural questions as technical or medical ones. A dispute over explicit material becomes a matter of library science. A dispute over gender identity becomes a matter of mental health best practice. The activist tells the parent he is not an educator, using the appeal to authority to sever the parent's confidence in his own judgment.
— Chapter 19, “Capture in K-12”
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