Judge orders readmission of law student who posted 'Jews must be abolished'

By Karen Sloan

Nov 25 (Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered the University of Florida to reinstate a law student it expelled for making controversial statements about race and religion, including a post on X that said “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary.”

Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee granted a preliminary injunction on Monday requiring plaintiff Preston Damsky be readmitted to the Gainesville law school for now, finding that the school had not shown his statements online and in academic papers were true threats of violence and that the expulsion likely violated his free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

“The University, of course, has an interest in maintaining order, but it has no interest in violating the First Amendment to achieve that goal,” Winsor said.

Damsky’s attorney, Anthony Sabatini, on Tuesday called the ruling “a big win for the First Amendment.” He said his client had missed an entire semester of law school due to the dispute.

A university spokesperson declined to comment on Tuesday.

Winsor wrote that Damsky has been a “controversial” figure at the law school and seems to enjoy “pushing boundaries and provoking others.” Damsky wrote two seminar papers that “generally argue the United States was founded as a race-based nation and should be preserved as such,” which some on campus viewed as calls to violence, according to the ruling.

Students raised safety concerns about Damsky with law school administrators but he did not face any disciplinary action until his post in March about abolishing Jews — a reference to a Harvard professor who had earlier called to “abolish the White race by any means necessary.”

The university suspended Damsky in April, saying his presence on campus “created a material and substantial disruption" to the law school's operations. He was expelled in October after a series of disciplinary hearings and sued the school.

The university can appeal the preliminary injunction, which requires Damsky to be readmitted by December 1. A trial is set for May.

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