Court Upholds Interim Suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter for Prohibited 10-Day Tent Demonstration
Yesterday’s decision by Judge William K. Sessions III (D. Vt.) in University of Vermont Students for Justice in Palestine v. University of Vermont upheld the University’s interim suspension of UVMSJP for violating various rules in setting up a 10-day long tent demonstration on the University’s Davis Center Green in Spring 2024:
- Using the Davis Center Green to the exclusion of others for non-commercial solicitation without a reservation;
- Disruption of scheduled tabling and other reservation of space outside the Davis Center;
- Disruption of normal student engagement and/or academic work patterns;
- Setting up tents (“temporary structure”) on the Davis Center Green without a permit and declining to remove them when requested;
- Overnight occupancy of a temporary structure;
- Encouraging and facilitating the violation of policy by other students.
UVMSJP sued over this suspension of the group’s recognized student organization privileges (the lawsuit wasn’t about any academic suspension of any particular students). The court, though, granted the university’s motion to dismiss, concluding that even if the facts were as UVMSJP had alleged, they wouldn’t amount to a violation of the First Amendment. First, the court rejected plaintiffs’ prior restraint claim:
In Healy v. James (1972), the Supreme Court considered whether a college violated the plaintiffs’ free association rights when it denied recognition of their student group. Ultimately, the Court remanded the case for reconsideration of the plaintiffs’ claims, as it was unable to “conclude from this record that petitioners were willing to abide by reasonable campus rules and regulations.” … Healy noted that recognition of a student group, “once accorded, may be withdrawn or suspended if petitioners fail to respect campus law.”
More recently, the Supreme Court considered a case in which Hastings Law School denied Registered Student Organization status to a Christian student group (“CLS”) that excluded students based on religion and sexual orientation. Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010)…. The Supreme Court … [held] that by requiring CLS to comply with all school policies and regulations, Hastings was merely imposing a “reasonable, viewpoint-neutral condition on access to the student-organization forum,” while CLS was seeking “not parity with other organizations, but a preferential exemption from Hastings’ [nondiscrimination] policy.”
The C
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