FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT:
MacKenzie Guy
(303) 292-2021
Communications@mslegal.org
Mountain States Legal Foundation and Young America’s Foundation Partner Up to Defend Free Speech on College Campuses
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (October 4, 2024)— Young America’s Foundation (YAF) has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) after the university blocked a lecture by scholar Robert Spencer last semester, citing “security concerns.” The event, organized by UCLA’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter, was titled “Everything You Know About Palestine Is Wrong.”
Represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation and Lex Rex Institute, YAF and Young Americans for Freedom student activists Brooke Broll and Macy Roepke are suing several UCLA administrators for violating their free speech rights under the First Amendment. The lawsuit claims that the administrators engaged in viewpoint discrimination by canceling the event in response to demands from pro-Hamas protesters, many of whom were maintaining an illegal encampment on UCLA’s campus. As a public school run with taxpayer dollars, UCLA must remain viewpoint-neutral and is prohibited from picking winners and losers when it comes to free expression.
Defendants include former UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block, interim UCLA Chancellor Darnell Hunt, and several others from campus leadership, accused of engaging in viewpoint discrimination by allowing anti-Israel “activism” to run rampant–even when it essentially devolved into a slow-moving riot—while shutting down peaceful pro-Israel speakers.
And UCLA is threatening to do it again. With the new school year starting, YAF is continuing to try to bring sane views on the Middle East conflict to the UCLA campus. Anti-Israel hecklers will predictably try to shout down YAF’s speakers, and UCLA’s job is not to cave in to the hecklers. But UCLA just adopted new campus rules at the end of the summer that will, in effect, make viewpoint discrimination against pro-Israel and conservative speech the official policy of the University.
“UCLA allowed its campus to be taken over by a radical anti-Israel mob, claiming that it could not do anything because the mob had a right to free speech (never mind the violence and property destruction),” noted Mountain States Legal Foundation Senior Counsel James Kerwin.
“But when YAF wanted to put on a true free speech event—a peaceful lecture presenting another perspective on the Middle East conflict, UCLA changed its tune and shut the talk down. UCLA pretends that it cares about freedom of expression, but when push comes to shove, it only allows one side to have its say,” Kerwin emphasized. “That is a violation of the First Amendment. This lawsuit will force UCLA to do what it should have done long ago: treat all viewpoints fairly and stop the campus shout down mobs.”
“Cancel culture has gone unchecked for far too long. YAF’s lawsuit aims to rebalance the equation, ensuring universities don’t cave to unhinged mobs by canceling pro-Israel speakers, but instead protect them and their first amendment rights,” said Governor Scott Walker, President of Young America’s Foundation.
YAF’s lawsuit seeks an injunction prohibiting UCLA from engaging in viewpoint discrimination or giving in to a heckler’s veto. The suit demands that UCLA provide adequate security for events, regardless of the viewpoint expressed. Additionally, YAF seeks a declaratory judgment that UCLA violated the First Amendment with its actions surrounding YAF’s planned lecture with Robert Spencer. This lawsuit also seeks compensatory, nominal, and punitive damages, along with attorney fees.