Dive Brief:
- Pro-Palestinian student organizations in Texas can continue their lawsuit alleging several of the state’s public colleges have violated their free speech rights, a federal judge ruled Monday.
- In May, groups from the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Dallas sued Gov. Greg Abbott and their colleges over the enforcement of a state executive order aimed at curbing antisemitism on campus.
- U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote Monday that the groups are “likely to succeed” at proving the institutions’ executive order-informed policies chilled free speech and violated the First Amendment. But he dismissed the claims against some of the defendants, including the governor.
Dive Insight:
In March, Abbott signed a three-page executive order requiring the states’ colleges to create “appropriate punishments” for antisemitism, including expulsion. “The State of Texas stands with Israel and the Jewish community, and we must escalate our efforts to protect against antisemitism at Texas colleges and universities and across our state,” Abbott said at the time.
Academic groups and free speech organizations criticized the order, arguing it amounted to governmental overreach and used overly broad language that could chill free speech while unfairly singling out certain student groups.
A couple months after Abbott’s order, the pro-Palestinian groups sued. They argued that Abbott’s order and the universities’ enforcement of it — including one group’s suspension — constituted violations of the First Amendment.
The order required Texas colleges to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes highly contested language.
The IHRA definition includes several examples of what it considers antisemitism, including “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Under this definition, the student groups argue, the new university policies would forbid them from criticizing Israel in certain ways, including by expressing their view that the Israeli military’s operations in Gaza amount to a genocide.
Pitman on Monday said the groups have plausibly plead their case thus far and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss all charges.
The defendants argued they are allowed to limit certain speech that would cause “substantial disruption,” citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent. But Pitman pushed back on that argument.
“For example, a student could calmly express she finds Israel’s policies similar to that of the Nazis while seated in a classroom with her hands folded in her lap, and it could hardly be said this expression is a per se substantial disruption,” Pitman wrote in his ruling. “Yet under UT Austin’s revised policy, for example, her expression is defined as antisemitism.”
However, Pitman dismissed one of the plaintiffs, the nonprofit Democratic Socialists of America, from the case, saying the group did not have standing to sue.
Pitman also narrowed the pool of defendants that the lawsuit could proceed against.
The groups’ lawsuit had named the following defendants:
- Gov. Greg Abbott.
- The University of Texas System Board of Regents and its members.
- The University of Houston.
- The University of Houston Board of Regents and its members.
- University of Houston President Rene Khator.
- The UT-Austin Board of Regents.
- UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell.
- University of Texas at San Antonio President Taylor Eighmy.
On Monday, Pitman dismissed the claims against Abbott, the University of Houston and its board and UT-Austin’s board, ruling that they were all protected by sovereign immunity.
He also denied the groups’ request to temporarily block Texas universities from enforcing the governor’s order while the case winds its way through the court system.