Professors at the University of Texas attempted to block a new campus carry law from taking effect on their campus, but their request for an injunction was denied by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Students and faculty at the Austin campus fiercely opposed allowing license holders to carry their concealed handguns to class.
On the other hand, Ann Maria Mackin, an attorney representing the school, criticized the plaintiff's arguments as being "rooted in assumptions and prejudices", a sentiment that Judge Yeakel ultimately agreed with.
But Yeakel ruled that a preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy that should not be granted unless the party seeking it "clearly carried the burden of persuasion on all four requirements".
The three University of Texas Austin professors were pushing for a preliminary injunction on the new "campus carry" law in the state, the Texas Tribune reported Wednesday. The university has been reeling in response to the law. Last year, a UT-sponsored working group published a report that wrestled with ways to reconcile the law with campus safety.
Yeakel said he worked under the assumption that professors have a constitutionally protected right of academic freedom, but that his final determination of that issue would be decided later in the case.
A Texas judge denied the professors' request.
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The court in its ruling said the professors' concerns should not override the legislature and the university where they work. The plaintiffs are arguing that the law violates their First Amendment right to academic freedombecause their classroom management could be influenced by fear of violent student retaliation.
Faculty and elected officials also joined the demonstration, including some from the group Gun Free UT.
The Texas Tribune wants to see what your college campus looks like now that campus carry is legal in Texas.
One of the anti-campus carry students, Marcella Lyles, wrote on Facebook, "What I don't understand is how so many people can be comfortable carrying a gun to class but think it's unusual and uncomfortable to take a dildo to class".
On August 1, 1966, the University of Texas in Austin witnessed one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country's history, when student Charles Whitman killed 16 people in a rampage, gunning them down firing from a perch atop a clock tower on the campus.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that the law is simply an extension of a right to bear arms that is already guaranteed to law-abiding Texans.
