College Republicans sue University of Florida’s president over deactivation of its chapter
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — College Republicans have filed a lawsuit against the president of the University of Florida on free speech grounds over the school’s decision to disband its department after it was learned that at least one member of the school had engaged in anti-Semitic activity.
University of Florida College Republicans filed a lawsuit against interim president Donald Landry in federal court on Monday, asking a judge to halt enforcement of the school’s order and restore access to facilities on the Gainesville campus.
“The University of Florida punitively deactivated and shut down UFCR in response to views allegedly expressed by a UFCR member and in an attempt to silence the club and chill its future speech,” the group said in its lawsuit.
UF spokeswoman Cynthia Roldan Hernandez said in an email that the university does not comment on pending litigation.
University of Florida officials said they were notified over the weekend by the Florida Federation of College Republicans that the federation had disbanded its Gainesville campus chapter after finding that some members had “engaged in a pattern of behavior that violated its rules and values, including a recent antisemitic gesture.”
Once ready, the Florida Federation of College Republicans will help reactivate the university’s campus chapter under new student leadership, UF officials said in a statement.
The opt-out was not based on any university policy or rule and was based solely on an “allegedly antisemitic” viewpoint of one member, the lawsuit said.
The university also failed to give College Republicans adequate notice and failed to give the department an opportunity to explain its side of the story, according to the lawsuit.
The opt-out effort on the University of Florida campus marks the second time this month that a Florida public university has taken action against a Republican group accused of engaging in racist or anti-Semitic behavior.
Earlier this month, Florida International University in Miami opened an investigation into a group chat started by an official with the Miami-Dade branch of the Republican Party that contained violent racial slurs, anti-Semitic comments and misogynistic language. The conversation included students at Florida International University and several senior conservative leaders.
last fall New York’s Republican State Committee suspends a resolution Young Republican organization after the publication of a group chat containing jokes about rape and flippant comments about gas chambers.
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