The free speech group Speech First sued U-M in May 2018 on behalf of three unnamed students after university officials launched a Bias Response Team to combat alleged bullying and harassment that led to complaints from conservative students concerned about the loose definitions for misconduct.

Initially, the rules outlawed "bullying" and "harassing" behavior that "annoy[s] persistently," creates an "unpleasant" situation or "frighten[s]" someone, as well as "unwanted negative attention perceived as intimidating, demeaning or bothersome to an individual," The College Fix reports.

The BRT defined bias as any incident "that discriminates, stereotypes, excludes, harasses or harms anyone in our community based on their identity," which was a problem for conservative students regularly mislabeled as racist for their perspective.