Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday called for the Supreme Court to review bias response teams on college campuses out of concern they stifle free speech rights.

Justice Thomas wrote a dissent from the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Speech First v. Pamela Whitten, which involves a bias response team at Indiana University that encourages students to report bias incidents, which can be done anonymously.

Five students who say they are silenced on campus out of fear of discussing unpopular topics had challenged the university’s bias response policy.

It takes four justices to vote in favor of hearing a dispute for oral arguments to be scheduled. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. noted that he would have granted the case.

Due to federal appeals courts having split decisions over whether a student has standing — known as sufficient legal injury — to challenge these speech police boards, Justice Thomas said the justices should weigh the issue. The split decisions leave some jurisdictions allowing students to bring First Amendment claims while others do not.

“I continue to believe that we should clarify the scope of a student’s right to challenge university policies that ‘potentially pressur[e him] to avoid controversial speech,’’ Justice Thomas wrote.

He said the bias definition provided by the university appeared to be “limitless in scope”

“Given the number of schools with bias response teams, this Court eventually will need to resolve the split over a student’s right to challenge such programs,” he said. “The Court’s refusal to intervene now leaves students subject to a ‘patchwork of First Amendment rights,’ with a student’s ability to challenge his university’s bias response policies varying depending on accidents of geography.”

More than 450 colleges and universities have bias response teams like Indiana University.

Some of the incidents noted in the Indiana University legal battle involved a non-Asian student that objected to comments expressing dislike of “China” in front of Chinese students, and a separate incident of a Facebook post that read “Diversity Divides Nations.”

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.