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College Republicans at the University of Florida sued interim President Donald Landry in federal court, alleging the university violated their free speech rights by deactivating the Gainesville chapter after being notified that at least one member engaged in an antisemitic act.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, asked the judge to stop the enforcement of the school’s decision and to restore the chapter’s access to campus facilities. The plaintiffs sued Landry as the university president, according to the complaint.
“The University of Florida punitively deactivated and shut down the UFCR, in response to alleged viewpoints expressed by a member of UFCR, and in an effort to silence the club and chill its future speech,” the group said in the lawsuit.
Cynthia Roldan Hernandez, a University of Florida spokeswoman, said in an email that the university does not comment on pending litigation.
UF officials said over the weekend that they were informed by the Florida Federation of College Republicans that the federation had disbanded the Gainesville chapter after determining that some members “engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated its rules and values, including a recent antisemitic gesture.” University officials said that when the Florida Federation of College Republicans is ready, the university will assist with reactivating the campus chapter under new student leadership.
The lawsuit disputes UF’s justification for the deactivation. It said the deactivation was not based on any university policy or rule and argued that UF relied only on a member’s expression of a viewpoint “which was alleged to be antisemitic.” The complaint also said the university did not provide adequate notice and did not give the chapter an opportunity to explain its side of the story.
The AP report said the deactivation marks the second time in the same month that a public university in Florida took action against a Republican group accused of involvement in racist or antisemitic behavior. Earlier in the month, Florida International University in Miami began an investigation into a group chat started by an official with the Miami-Dade chapter of the Republican Party that included violently racist slurs, antisemitic comments and misogynistic language, and involved students and several top conservative leaders at FIU.
The report also cited an earlier example in New York, where New York’s Republican State Committee suspended a Young Republican organization after the release of a group chat that included jokes about rape and flippant commentary on gas chambers.