"Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee granted a preliminary injunction on Monday requiring plaintiff Preston Damsky be readmitted to the Gainesville law school for now, finding that the school had not shown his statements online and in academic papers were true threats of violence and that the expulsion likely violated his free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment."
"I think this outcome makes sense. Shitty thing to say, but without some aspect of immediacy, his "abolish" advocacy reads more like impotent wishful thinking than it does a legitimate threat. And while it might have sparked enough environmental hostility at a private college to justify giving a student the boot, the First Amendment thumbs the scale in Damsky's favor at a public university. At least for now."
A University of Florida law student was expelled after making antisemitic statements online and for academic work advocating a White ethnostate. The student sued, arguing the expulsion violated First Amendment free-speech protections. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction ordering readmission, finding the university had not demonstrated the statements were true threats of violence and that the expulsion likely infringed constitutional free speech rights. Commentary acknowledged the rhetoric as reprehensible but noted the absence of immediacy or clear threat, strengthening the legal protection for speech at a public university for now.
Read at Above the Law
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