A judge has stated that Muslim students who allegedly harassed Jewish students and even assaulted a woman with a cart was engaging in protected political speech.
Jessica Felber claimed in a lawsuit against the University of Berkeley that a leader of a pro-Palestinian group rammed her with a shopping cart as she staged a counter-protest to the anti-Israel “Apartheid Week” conducted by the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine in 2010.
Felber and another Jewish student claimed the University did not do enough to prevent the harassment which included the Muslim group conducting checkpoints around the campus. Students were asked if they were Jewish while passing the checkpoints.
On Thursday U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said the harassment, even if true, constituted protected political speech and dismissed the case against the university.
If the judge actually held that assault and battery is protected speech that is indeed outrageous.
ReplyDeleteIt's always hard to tell what the court's holding actually was from reading a newspaper article on it, but it sounds to me (I've snipped and pasted some of the relevant passages below) like Felber sued *the University* (not the students who assaulted and battered her) for failing to protect her, and that the judge said that that wasn't the University's job, since she wasn't engaged in educational pursuits at the time, and in fact wasn't even enrolled there at the time. And, much as I deplore the battery, I think, if that's the ruling, that it's the correct one. She should have gone after the people who assaulted and battered her (and perhaps she did), not the University.
>>Seeborg said the university did not have any obligation to intervene in any dispute where a private individual on campus was allegedly interfering with another’s constitutional rights.
>>“The incident in which Felber was assaulted with a shopping cart, for example, did not occur in the context of her educational pursuit,” Seeborg wrote.
>>Seeborg also stated in dismissing the case, that many of the alleged incidents of harassment happened before plaintiffs were enrolled at the university. . . .
I think, if that's the ruling, that it's the correct one.
ReplyDeleteVery perceptive and I believe you are correct.
Yes, this is not a case that legalized a Muslim assault on Jewish students... it was simply a legal ruling that said that what occurred had nothing to do with the University. Period.
ReplyDeleteAnd "the Greeley Gazette" quotes some loon from Jihad Watch, which is a group pretty much in the same vein as the SPLC, meaning it should not be used for quotes, or anything else.