The Justice Department argued Tuesday that a California community college’s speech policies created unconstitutional prior restraint that depressed free expression, supporting a student’s lawsuit claiming that the school violated his First Amendment rights.

Kevin Shaw, a student studying philosophy and political science at Pierce College in Los Angeles, was handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution on campus one day when a school official stopped him, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The official told Shaw that he could only hand out the Constitution in the “free-speech zone” on campus—616 square feet of the school’s 426 acres—and would need a permit.

In response, Shaw, with an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Community College District, which requires its schools to designate “free-speech zones” on campus.

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Sessions has said that, as attorney general, he will prioritize the issue of free speech on college campuses. He specifically mentioned Shaw’s case last month in a speech at Georgetown University Law Center.