DeSantis criticized over First Amendment concerns in banning pro-Palestinian college groups: ‘shameful’
Ron DeSantis’ decision to close pro-Palestinian campus groups is receiving pushback from both civil liberties groups and at least one 2024 presidential hopeful.
Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Florida governor’s administration arguing that its demand that public universities “deactivate” local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine is an attempt of “stifling” student speech protected by the First Amendment.
A spokesperson for the governor supported DeSantis’ decision in light of the lawsuit, saying he was right “to disband a group that provides material support to a terrorist organization.”
But a rival of DeSantis for the Oval Office, Vivek Ramaswamy, criticized the order as “absolute hypocrisy,” while a libertarian-leaning group fighting for free speech on college campuses is also criticizing the measure.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Republican presidential candidate in 2024 (Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images)
“Freedom of speech doesn’t just protect the ideas we love. It protects the ideas we hate,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“The idiotic ‘pro-Palestinian’ college student groups are completely wrong to excuse genocidal attacks on Jews and proclaim disgusting anti-Semitism, but one of the things that sets us apart from Islamic terrorists is that we do not silence dissent,” he said.
On October 24, Chancellor Ray Rodrigues of the state university system, in consultation with DeSantis, sent a memo to all state university presidents, noting that, following the deadly Hamas attacks that terrorists dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood , the National Students for Justice in Palestine (National JEP) published a “toolkit” that refers to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as “the resistance” and said: “Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, they are not in solidarity with this movement.
Having identified at least two local SJP chapters active in Florida schools, Rodrigues ordered that, due to the National SJP’s support for terrorism, those local chapters “must be deactivated.”
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Students participate in a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University on November 15, 2023 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The chancellor based his “deactivation” order for student groups on Florida law, which makes it a felony to “knowingly provide material support… to a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
“Here, the National SJP has affirmatively identified that it is part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a terrorist-led attack,” the foreign minister said.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of an SJP chapter at the University of Florida (UF SJP), arguing that the memo is “an attempt to stifle” student speech protected by the First Amendment and “fosters an atmosphere of suspicion “mutual.”
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“UF SJP is fully autonomous from both NSJP and other SJP chapters across the country. The Chancellor’s order provides no basis for attributing NSJP speech to Florida SJP chapters, including UF SJP. Furthermore, the NSJP’s independent political advocacy, regardless of its point of view — is fully protected by the First Amendment,” the ACLU said in a news release.
“The deactivation order is an attempt to stifle pro-Palestine advocacy by student groups on campus at a time when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a topic of vital public discourse and concern.”
Ramaswamy called the memo “a disgraceful political ploy” by DeSantis “to ban pro-Palestinian student groups from Florida universities.”
“It’s unconstitutional. It’s total hypocrisy for someone who attacked left-wing cancel culture,” he said.
Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
“Conservatives should be allowed to criticize BLM or vaccine mandates, and crazy liberals should be able to criticize Israel or the West even if they are completely wrong about it. If the government can censor who can speak and who can’t, the rest really “It doesn’t matter: we are no different from those we intend to fight.”
Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonprofit organization that defends free speech, appears to agree, arguing that “advocacy alone” does not equate to providing.” material support”.
“Public universities are subject to the First Amendment and cannot disenroll a student organization because of its protected speech,” Steinbaugh said.
“Promotion alone is not material support for terrorism and cannot be the basis for sanctioning student organizations.”
FIRE issued a prior warning in October when the memo was issued, saying that “if left unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government repression.”
FIRE added that there is no indication in the letter that any action by Florida SJP groups “went beyond speech fully protected by the First Amendment.”
