Yesterday's opinion by Judge Steven Merryday (M.D. Fla.) in Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society rejects various First Amendment claims stemming from the group's expulsion by the University, largely for the reasons given in a decision I posted about in January. But it adds the following, responding to the plaintiffs' conspiracy claims:
The plaintiffs allege in the conspiracy claim (and without factual support) (1) that each defendant acted "outside the course and scope of … employment," (2) that "[e]ach individual defendant knew or should have known that their actions were in violation of Plaintiffs' constitutional rights," and "[i]n the alternative" (3) that "each Defendant acted with callous or reckless indifference [to] the Plaintiffs' rights." … In support of their conspiracy claim (or, absent sufficiently particularized facts, their conspiracy theory), the plaintiffs allege:
On May 5, 2024, the Tampa Jewish Community Centers & Federation (JCC) published a letter commending the USF administration for its zero-tolerance approach to Palestinian and allied student organizing against Israel's actions in Gaza since October 2023, and thanking [President] Law for meeting with them on multiple occasions and "work[ing]" with them to address "anti-Israel activity on campus" by what it called "anti-Israel students and agitators."
The JCC stated that the USF administration met with the Tampa Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) on multiple occasions since October 7, 2023, had been in 'ongoing contact' (outside the sunshine) with 'several key stakeholder groups,' had met with the Deputy Consul General of Israel for Florida, had watched a 42-minute propaganda film about Hamas, and had been paying for around-the-clock police presence at … Hillel [another Jewish Organization].
