On Thursday, Young America’s Foundation (YAF) filed a lawsuit against the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), alleging a First Amendment Violation after the university blocked the organization from hosting a lecture by author Robert Spencer last spring.
Spencer was set to speak at a pro-Israel event in mid-May 2023 and deliver a speech titled “Everything You Know About Palestine Is Wrong.” Yet, despite tolerating months of protests and demonstrations by anti-Israel agitators, the university threw up multiple roadblocks to the planned YAF event.
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The complaint, which may be viewed in full below, was filed by Mountain States Legal Foundation and Lex Rex Institute on behalf of YAF and activists Brooke Broll and Macy Roepke, and names several UCLA administrators who they assert violated the YAF students’ First Amendment rights by caving to pro-Hamas agitators, essentially affording them a “heckler’s veto.” It seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting UCLA from engaging in viewpoint discrimination and further requests that the university be compelled to provide security equally regardless of the content of the speech. The suit further seeks a finding that UCLA’s actions regarding the Spencer lecture violated the First Amendment and seeks compensatory and nominal damages, as well as punitive damages and attorney fees.
Regarding the suit, YAF President and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said:
“Cancel culture has gone unchecked for far too long. YAF’s lawsuit aims to rebalance the equation, ensuring universities don’t cave to unhinged mobs by canceling pro-Israel speakers and instead protect them and their First Amendment rights.”
Plaintiff Brooke Broll said:
“Our higher education institutions are tasked with fostering debate, yet UCLA officials clearly violated this fundamental principle. By choosing sides, institutional leaders curtailed students’ intellectual growth and infringed upon our first amendment rights.”
And James Kerwin, senior counsel at Mountain States Legal Foundation, stated:
“UCLA allowed its campus to be taken over by a radical anti-Israel mob, claiming that it could not do anything because the mob had a right to free speech (never mind the violence and property destruction).”
The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, a court which, as the complaint notes, recently handed a free speech victory to Jewish UCLA students in another case:
Based on these events, a court in this district recently found that Jewish UCLA students are likely to succeed on the merits of a claim that UCLA violated their constitutional rights. Frankel v. Regents of Univ. of California, No. 2:24-CV-04702-MCS-PD, 2024 WL3811250, at *6 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 13, 2024); id. at *8 (“Defendants are prohibited from knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and campus areas . . .”)
Because the suit seeks a preliminary injunction, the court will likely schedule a hearing in the matter fairly quickly and could issue a ruling within the next month or two. RedState will continue to monitor the case and provide updates as they become available.
1 Verified Complaint by Susie Moore
