When I heard about the lawsuit filed by two UC Berkeley students against the university for permitting an atmosphere of fear and intimidation of Jewish students by anti-Israel activists, I was encouraged but should have foreseen that the case would come before a federal judge in San Francisco. The IPT reports that the suit has, indeed, been thrown out by a federal judge.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3357/judge-dismisses-berkeley-suit
According to Judge Richard Seeborg, it is all free speech and free expression. Yet, I seem to recall that one of the students, Jessica Felber, reported that an SJP member rammed her from behind with a loaded shopping cart during one of those anti-Israel events at the Berkeley campus. Since when does that fall under the First Amendment?
By the way, guess who appointed Seeborg to the federal bench.
I generally make it a point not to comment in detail on judicial rulings without reading the full opinion -- but I haven't found it posted on a court web site yet.
ReplyDeleteFrom what is quoted in the press, the judge's ruling appears to be sound. The student rammed with the shopping cart obtained a restraining order against the individual perpetrating the assault. Prosecution in Alameda County Superior Court would also have been appropriate -- and not a matter of federal jurisdiction.
The university is not responsible for providing more intimate regulation of a clash of public opinions than the police generally are. The lawsuit was badly conceived. The Alameda County DA's office would have been a more appropriate focus. The university is not responsible to provide each vociferous advocate of a viewpoint with a bodyguard. As Justice Antonin Scalia has pointed out, you have to have a bit of spine of your own if you choose to go out and advocate a viewpoint.
In the martial art of 'Bujinkan Budo' one looks at a strike to the body as "a gift". Now that the fed judge in SF has made his decision, that all is "free speech", one can use it as an advantage, as a gift. Countering the UCI/MSU message at hate week, with signs and posters regarding the "Inventerd people", must be allowed. If told to remove the posters, just read the free speech ruling to all the officials. If the officials insist on violating first amendment rights, as settled in the fed court, sue the bastards. A gift is a gift.
ReplyDeleteSquid
What's new Squid? That is already basic First Amendment law.
ReplyDeleteFindalis, I can't even count the number of lawyers in California named "Rosenberg," much less all the other Jewish names represented in the attorney section of the yellow pages. No legal resource?
ReplyDeleteI admit, some percentage of lawyers named Rosenberg in California may be relatives of Alfred, and others may have married gentiles, or had gentiles for mothers, but still, statistically speaking...