UC Berkeley must face lawsuit alleging bias against conservative speakers

April 26, 2018  16H:55  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Kathy DiNuzzo and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, San Francisco

A federal judge rejected the University of California at Berkeley’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it discriminated against conservative speakers like Ann Coulter by imposing unreasonable restrictions and fees on their appearances.

In a decision late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in San Francisco said two conservative groups could pursue claims that the school applied its “high-profile speaker” and “major events” policies in a manner that unfairly suppressed conservative speech.

But the judge also said she was “unpersuaded” by claims that the school engaged in intentional viewpoint discrimination, and said the plaintiffs could not seek punitive damages.

The Berkeley College Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation, a Tennessee group, had sued after the university canceled Coulter’s scheduled speech last April 27, citing security concerns.

UC Berkeley is known as the birthplace of the student-led Free Speech Movement of the 1960s. Like other schools, it has tried to welcome different views without jeopardizing safety or its educational mission.

Spokespeople and lawyers for the school did not immediately respond on Thursday to requests for comment. University of California President Janet Napolitano is also a defendant.

The major events policy was adopted in July, and gave school officials discretion to take various steps to ensure security.

While saying the policy was not too vague, Chesney said the plaintiffs may pursue an equal protection claim over a security fee charged for an appearance by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro that was well above a fee at the same venue for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, part of the court’s liberal bloc.

“It is good news that the case is going forward,” Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview on Thursday. “The First Amendment is a core constitutional principle, and every government policy that restricts, censors or bars otherwise legal speech is unconstitutional.”

The case is Young America’s Foundation et al v Napolitano et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 17-02255.

Ann Coulter: UC Berkeley headed for showdown

20 April 2017 - 04H40 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Melissa Gruz and Biodun Iginla, France24, San Francisco

 
 
 
 
• inShare

© Getty/AFP/File / by Jocelyne ZABLIT | A talk by right-wing commentator Ann Coulter at the University of California at Berkeley has been scrapped as her safety could not be assured by the university

SAN FRANCISCO  - 

The University of California at Berkeley appears headed for a showdown with right-wing commentator Ann Coulter after her planned appearance at the school was canceled over security concerns.

The decision to shelve her April 27 talk at the famously progressive campus came days after opponents and supporters of President Donald Trump clashed in the city.

It also echoed a similar cancellation in February of a planned speech at the university by a right-wing provocateur and former Brietbart editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, following violent protests.

Coulter reacted angrily to the cancellation on Wednesday, saying in a series of tweets that it amounted to censorship and vowing nonetheless to show up at Berkeley as scheduled.

"I am! At Berkeley next Thursday," she said in one tweet.

She added in another post that she had instructed the Republican student group that invited her "to spare no expense in renting my speaking venue - part of my legal damages."

A spokesman for the university told us at France24 that the school's College Republicans were informed late Tuesday that the event with Coulter had to be scrapped as the safety of the firebrand conservative commentator and the public could not be assured.

"Unfortunately, (campus police) determined that, given currently active security threats, it is not possible to assure that the event could be held successfully," according to a letter sent to the student group.

University spokesman Dan Mogulof said concern about security during the event mounted last week after posters appeared on the walls of campus buildings threatening disruptions.

He added that "targeted threats" on two websites had also been discovered.

- 'Ridiculous demands' -

Last weekend, Berkeley was the scene of fights between pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators that led to at least 21 people being arrested.

Mogulof said campus police had learned that some of the groups that took part in those clashes "planned to target the appearance of Ann Coulter on campus."

The recent unrest has put the spotlight on the university, known as the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.

The Washington Post quoted Coulter as saying that the university had tried to pressure her to cancel her speech by "imposing ridiculous demands" and that she had agreed to all their "silly" requirements.

She told the paper that her speech was to focus on immigration, the subject of one of her books.

"They just up and announced that I was prohibited from speaking anyway," she was quoted as saying. "I feel like the Constitution is important, and that taxpayer-supported universities should not be using public funds to violate American citizens? constitutional rights."

Mogulof said the university hoped to be able to reschedule Coulter's appearance some time in September, after identifying an appropriate venue and working out security arrangements.

University officials said although the student organization that invited Coulter was independent and was free to welcome whoever they wished at Berkeley, the campus was responsible "for ensuring safety and security during such events."

"In the wake of events surrounding the planned appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos in February, as well as several riots which have occurred in recent weeks in the city of Berkeley, we have increased our scrutiny regarding the time and location of high-profile speakers so that these events can go forward unimpeded," the letter sent to the group said.

Members of the student organization could not be reached for comment.

 

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Trump threatens UC Berkeley after protests

Fri Feb 3, 2017 | 06H:44  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Kathy DiNuzzo and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Berkeley, CA

U.S. President Donald Trump does not have the authority to withhold funding from the University of California at Berkeley where violent protests led to the cancellation of a speech by a far-right editor, academics and experts said on Thursday.

Trump threatened to cut funds for the university's flagship Berkeley campus in a Twitter posting accusing the institution of failing to support free speech and practicing violence against innocent people.

But academics and experts interviewed by Reuters said state universities mostly receive federal funds in the form of research grants and financial aid to students, and these cannot be revoked for reasons related to freedom of speech.

"There is nothing in current legislation that would allow President Trump to do that," said Don Heller, a provost at the University of San Francisco and an expert in public education financing.

UC Berkeley receives between $400 million and $450 million annually in federal funding for research, and about $216 million for student financial aid, officials said.

Some of that can be withheld but only in very specific circumstances, such as the publication of fraudulent research or the refusal of a university to comply with the Title IX law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs.

To add freedom of speech to that list of offenses would take new legislation in Congress, Heller and other experts said.

And even if such a law were passed, Berkeley's situation would be highly unlikely to be affected, said Terry Hartle, vice president for Government and Public Affairs at the American Council on Education.

That is because in Berkeley's case, the university had attempted to facilitate the speech on Wednesday night, cancelling it only after police became concerned about safety.

“Because the crowd had grown so violent and agitated, it was our recommendation to the speaker that his public safety was in jeopardy,” UC Berkeley police department spokeswoman Sergeant Sabrina Reich said in a telephone interview.

"NO FEDERAL FUNDS?"

Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart News, was escorted by police from the campus as a relatively small group among the 1500 protesters smashed windows and set fires and the campus was put on lockdown. There were no injuries.

Yiannopoulos has been a provocative figure on the internet for years, and has been widely criticized for comments he has made about Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists and feminists.

Trump, whose aide Steve Bannon previously ran the right-wing, nationalist Breitbart site, tweeted his response shortly before dawn in Washington on Thursday.

"If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?" the President wrote.

His administration was not immediately available for further comment on Thursday.

Longer-term, there were some steps a Trump administration could take that would affect the university.

For instance, the Department of Energy could conceivably seek to relocate the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is in the hills above the campus and is managed by the University of California, said Bob Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary for education in the Obama administration.

“There are things that if a president really wanted to punish some particular college they could influence those decisions but it would take a long time and there would be a lot of reaction,” said Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation.