Republican State Senator Bill Leonard wrote the law to require private high schools, colleges, and universities to protect their students' rights to freedom of speech "and other communication" that the government is required to protect for all of its citizens.
State Assembly members Leland Yee and Joe Nation authored the amendment in preemptive response to the Hosty v. Carter decision of the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
[3][4] Leonard Law states "No [school] shall make or enforce a rule subjecting a student to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or other communication that, when engaged in outside the campus or facility of a [school], is protected from governmental restriction by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 2 of Article I of the California Constitution.
[5] Schools are permitted to enforce reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of the student's speech.
On February 27, 1995, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Peter G. Stone issued the ruling in Corry v. Stanford that struck down the speech code as a violation of the Leonard Law.