Katlyn Patton
Katlyn, an Ohio native, returns to FIRE after serving as a judicial law clerk on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Before her clerkship, Katlyn spent three years with FIRE as a staff attorney and program officer. She began her career as an associate at an international law firm in Cleveland.
Katlyn graduated from Ohio University in Athens, where she served as the director of Students Defending Students, an organization dedicated to advising students through the university disciplinary process. This experience sparked Katlyn’s passion for defending student rights and free speech. She earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 2018. Katlyn’s student Note, Trumping the First Amendment: Student-Driven Calls for Speech Restrictions on Public College Campuses, was published in Volume 68 of the Case Western Reserve Law Review.
In her free time, Katlyn enjoys traveling, reading, scrolling BookTok, and exploring her new home city, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Recent Writings
- Rights demand remedies: FIRE files brief urging the Supreme Court to permit damages when feds retaliate against protected speech,
- Oklahoma community college cancels summer course on race in knee-jerk reaction to new state law,
- New York schools continue to flout student rights — and New York courts continue to let them,
- Arizona community college to pay $155K settlement for directing professor to apologize for Islamic terrorism quiz question,
- NYU ignores academic freedom, investigates Mark Crispin Miller’s course content, blog post,
- Victory! University of Northern Iowa administration recognizes Students for Life group formerly labeled as ‘hate group’,
- University of Northern Iowa administration must correct its student government’s refusal to recognize ‘hate group’ Students for Life,
- University of Virginia president rightly defends student’s ‘F— UVA’ sign amid backlash ,
- Ohio State revises coercive belief pledge following FIRE letter,
- Following FIRE letter, Bellevue College clarifies that students can repeat, ask questions about 'racist statements' without discipline,
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