Lawsuit Filed Over Coulter’s Disinvitation by UC Berkeley

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By Pooja Bachani

It is officially disinvitation season again!

Young America’s Foundation (YAF) and Berkeley College Republicans (CR) filed a lawsuit against University of California at  Berkeley on Monday over the rescheduling of Ann Coulter’s appearance. The abrupt cancellation prompted student outrage. As a concession university officials agreed to reschedule for Monday, May 2, a day Coulter is unavailable.

Harmeet Dhillon, a prominent Republican lawyer, filed the lawsuit on behalf of  YAF and Berkeley CR, charging that administrative action to reschedule Coulter’s talk restricts the free speech of conservatives at UC Berkeley. University officials claimed to reschedule in response to questionable threats found on internet forums and allegedly specific information from law enforcement concerning these threats.

The effective rescheduling calls into question the university’s compliance, or lack thereof, to the First Amendment. As a public university, the administration cannot override a student invitation for a guest speaker. Berkeley claimed adherence to the First Amendment in the same email in which they announced cancelling Coulter’s appearance on account of “security threats”, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) website. However, threat or potential of violence is not enough to give law enforcement the ground to advise disinvitation.

Coulter’s disinvitation is just the latest in a growing list of controversial speakers asked to reschedule or cancel their appearance altogether during commencement season. FIRE has an entire disinvitation database from 2000 onwards that chronicles the blatant restriction of free speech by universities nationwide.

This is not an isolated event.

The First Amendment is under attack at the very place in which students are encouraged to express their thoughts in pursuit of knowledge and higher education. Thus, begging the question: What are we teaching the next generation?

FIRE is hosting its first West Coast Regional Conference this Saturday in Los Angeles. The conference aims to educate students on the history of free expression and speech in education and empower students with strategies to help protect the First Amendment.

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