From today's opinion by Chief Judge Mark Walker (N.D. Fla.) in Students for Justice in Palestine at Univ. of Florida v. Rodrigues (see this Oct. 27, 2023 post for more on the background First Amendment issues):
On October 24, 2023, less than three weeks after Hamas's horrific attack on Israel and a spike in antisemitic hate crimes throughout the United States, the Chancellor of the Board of Governors sent a memorandum to each university president in the State University System, including Defendant Ben Sasse, President of the University of Florida. The memorandum described Hamas's attack and linked Hamas's actions to an organization called the National Students for Justice in Palestine, based on statements that the national organization made in response to events in Israel.
The Chancellor cited Florida's criminal law against providing material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations and implied that the national organization violated that statute based on its statements. The Chancellor then identified two student chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine that exist as registered student organizations at two of Florida's state universities. One of those chapters is Plaintiff, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Florida. The Chancellor incorrectly described these student chapters as "active National SJP Chapters" that "exist under the headship of the National Students for Justice in Palestine." In bold, the Chancellor stated: "Based on the National SJP's support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated."
A week after the Chancellor sent his memorandum, he addressed the matter again at a Board of Governors (BOG) meeting on November 9, 2023. At the meeting, the Chancellor indicated that the student chapters of the Students for Justice in Palestine, including Plaintiff, have constitutions that clearly state that their organizations are not subservient to or under the control of the national organization, as he had suggested in his memorandum. He also indicated that officials at the University of Florida had sought their own legal opinion about deactivating Plaintiff and the opinion raised concerns that officials at the University of Florida could be exposed to personal liability if they deactivated the student organization consistent with Defendant Rodrigues's memorandum.
Plaintiff filed suit about a week after this BOG meeting. Without dispute, the University of Florida has not deactivated Plaintiff as a registered student organization. But Plaintiff asks this Court to decide whether this memorandum and the threat of deactivation that this memorandum arguably represents violates Plaintiff's First Amendment rights to free speech and association.
