TAMPA, Fla. — A second pro-Palestinian student group in Florida is suing the governor and State University System following an order to disband them.
University of South Florida Students for Justice in Palestine alleged the effort is a violation of free speech. They filed a legal challenge Monday in the US District Court of Northern Florida.
“If I can criticize America and our elected officials, then by every stretch of imagination, every right that I have as an American, I can criticize a foreign government,” said Abdullah Jaber, the Chief Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Florida Chapter, during a Tuesday news conference on the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, and USF leaders violated the First Amendment for pursuing the deactivation. Plaintiffs are asking a judge to halt the effort, saying it's a "despicable attempt on behalf of politicians to silence opinions they disagree with…"
“These are United States citizens who were born here as proud Muslim Floridians," said Omar Saleh, an attorney with CAIR-Florida. "And now, because they're in a group called Students for Justice in Palestine, are being labeled terrorists. We already know what's coming next. And it has to be stopped head-on.”
This is the second lawsuit in recent weeks. University of Florida’s SJP chapter has argued a similar violation in federal court as well.
It all follows pro-Palestine protests on both campuses last month. The demonstrations then provoked this October letter, first reported by Fox News, from Chancellor Rodrigues. In it, he alleged both UF and USF student groups were directly tied to the National SJP organization, thereby providing "material support" to Hamas during its ongoing fight with the Israel Defense Forces.
The governor’s office and university system have yet to comment as of Tuesday afternoon. However, DeSantis did tout his effort while on the debate stage this month.
“We deactivated them," DeSantis said. "We’re not going to use state tax dollars to fund jihad— no way.”
Neither SJP group has been disbanded as of yet. Rodrigues said a day after the Miami debate, there was evidence the two chapters were indeed separate from the national organization. He cautioned there were legal concerns with moving forward.
“The constitutions of both organizations, which were submitted by them at the beginning of the school year when they were registered as an active student-registered organization, clearly state their organization is not subservient or under the national Students for Justice in Palestine,” he said. “Therefore, the universities have not deactivated their university chapters of SJP.”
Even so— attorneys for USF’s chapter said Tuesday the effort has caused a chilling effect on the speech of students. They remained committed to getting the order to disband eliminated.
“We want to ensure that the students are going to have access to funding, access to the ability to hold forums," said Saleh. "And, be able to say 'free Palestine.'”
Plaintiff's attorneys also noted that they've been in contact with the ACLU which is representing the UF-SJP chapter. They said they would be open to resolving the dispute outside the court system if possible.
