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US JUDGE SIDES WITH PRO-PALESTINIAN STUDENTS OVER CANCELED 7 OCTOBER
VIGIL  
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Sam Levine
October 2, 2024
The Guardian
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_ University of Maryland cannot block Students for Justice in
Palestine from holding campus event for Gaza, judge rules _

Students at University of Maryland campus, univofmaryland

 

The University of Maryland cannot block students from holding an event
on 7 October to mourn those killed in Gaza, a federal judge ruled on
Tuesday
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allowing students to move forward with it.

Students with the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in
Palestine (SJP) had reserved a room in July to host the event. In
August, school leaders met with them to share concerns about the event
and pressure they had been receiving to cancel it. On 1 September, the
school’s president announced he was canceling all student-sponsored
events on 7 October and would only allow school-sponsored events.

The school cited security concerns in support of its decision and
said school officials
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received death threats as news of the event spread.

The decision to cancel the event probably violated the students’
first amendment rights, Peter Messitte, a US district judge appointed
by Bill Clinton, wrote in a ruling on Tuesday
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The school could have also taken other steps short of canceling the
event to bolster security, including hiring additional personnel or
even law enforcement.

“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,” he wrote.

Darryll Pines, the University’s president, said in an email that the
school would respect the court’s decision
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Abel Amene, the co-secretary of the school chapter of Students for
Justice in Palestine, also praised the decision.

“We are relieved to have the chance to actually put on this event
and commemorate not only all the deaths that occurred on October 7,
including hundreds of Palestinians during bombings in Gaza on October
7, but the tens of thousands of people that have been killed since
that date,” he told the Washington Post
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The legal battle in Maryland is unlikely to be the last first
amendment test on a college campus as several schools
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implemented new restrictions on protests after contentious protests
rocked campuses last spring.

* pro-Palestine protests
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* University of Maryland
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* First Amendment
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* court decision
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