The University of Alamaba’s police force is one of the busiest in the nation.

After issuing over 50,000 parking tickets, the school’s police have stepped on the free speech rights of a group of pro-life students. The Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) subsequently sent administrators a reminder about free speech rights:

University of Alabama police have ordered a pro-choice student group to cease distributing informational flyers on campus in response to another group’s pro-life event, and threatened members with arrest for failing to comply with its orders. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has intervened at UA following this blatant and chilling abuse of student First Amendment rights.

“Yet again, a public university bound by the First Amendment has regulated free speech far beyond what the Constitution allows,” said Robert Shibley, FIRE’s Senior Vice President. “The University of Alabama has no business telling a group of students—regardless of its views on abortion or any other issue—that it needs a permit just to hand out flyers on the campus’ main outdoor public area.”

As The Crimson White, UA’s student newspaper, reported on April 17, 2013, the student group Bama Students for Life hosted a “Genocide Awareness Project” (GAP) protest on UA’s quad on April 10 and 11. GAP protests are frequently hosted on college campuses and feature graphic, abortion-related images. Members of the Alabama Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (AASRJ) student group learned of the planned event on April 9 and decided to distribute flyers to counter GAP’s pro-life message.

The pro-choice students of AASRJ distributed flyers on the quad, in the vicinity of the protest, for roughly one hour on April 10 without incident. The Crimson White reports, however, that a woman complained to UA police about the content of one of the group’s flyers. UA police then ordered AARSJ to end its counter-protest and threatened to arrest two AASRJ members. One member reported, “We were then warned … [w]ithout a grounds permit, any member distributing fliers as part of AARSJ would be arrested.”

AASRJ submitted a grounds use permit request to UA in order to continue its counter-protest activities on April 11 but was informed by a UA official that the permit would not be approved in time. UA’s grounds use policy states that permits may be approved in “as few as 3 days,” but otherwise instructs that “applicants for use of other campus grounds should request permission for such use 10 working days prior to the event.”