The University of Maryland (UMD) must allow a pro-Palestinian student group to host a vigil on Oct. 7, a district court ruled Tuesday.
The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter sued UMD in September after the university canceled their event request despite initially approving it, saying in a statement that only “university-sponsored events that promote reflection” would be allowed on Oct.7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel that began the war in Gaza. The university cited safety concerns and “numerous calls … to cancel and restrict the events that take place that day” in the statement, but Clinton-appointed Judge Peter J. Messitte agreed with the SJP chapter that preventing the event violated the First Amendment, according to court documents.
“The grave harm the University cites is the potential disruption and violence that it believes will follow if the October 7 event goes forward,” the Messitte’s decision reads. “But in the Court’s view the decision of the University to revoke SJP’s reservation was clearly neither viewpoint- nor content-neutral. It came about for reasons that the Constitution simply does not countenance: fear of disruption, and anger of opponents. Again, the case authority emphatically rejects these reasons.”
The court clarified that the university could still enforce its conduct rules and had a right to punish students who violate university policy.
“[W]hile speech and slogans by SJP will be permitted on October 7, any negative conduct not protected by the First Amendment will not be — including any incitement to imminent violence, physical or verbal threats, impeding access of any students to class or buildings, property damage of any sort, the occupation of buildings, encampments, and, in general, defiance of reasonable crowd control measures employed by security personnel,” Messitte wrote. “Violators may be subject to arrest and/or ouster from the campus. The University’s policy requirements with respect to campus events as they presently stand will apply in full.”
Messitte also added that “it remains entirely plausible that the university may need to beef up its security personnel” for the event and said UMD should be prepared in case protests erupt.
“It simply cannot be said with assurance that personal threats, violence, and property damage as a result of campus protests involving Gaza, given recent experience around the country, will not occur,” Messitte wrote. “But, as stated before, there are less restrictive alternatives to meet these potential challenges short of suppressing expressive conduct under the First Amendment.”
Anti-Israel protests initially erupted on college campuses in 2023 and resulted in numerous arrests, widespread damages and in some cases turned violent, though many students faced little to no discipline for the events. Protests remain a constant on campuses with Cornell University seeing outbreaks on the very first day of classes this year.
“Today, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Maryland has achieved a historic victory,” the group wrote in an Instagram post. “We refuse to allow attempts to cancel our reservations to stop our message.”
UMD did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Nathan Neve/Unsplash)
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