The University of Florida College Republicans group filed a lawsuit against the school on Monday, alleging its First Amendment rights were violated when leadership shut down the chapter.
The university said over the weekend it was informed that the Florida Federation of College Republicans had disbanded the UF chapter, after a social media post appearing to depict several members giving the Nazi “Heil Hitler” salute circulated online. In reaction, Donald Landry, the university’s interim president, said the school would proceed to deactivate the chapter as a registered student organization. Landry said findings indicated “some Local CR members” engaged in a “recent antisemitic gesture” in violations of school policy. The university is committed “to preventing and addressing antisemitism and other forms of discrimination and harassment,” he said.
The UF chapter responded with a lawsuit against Landry, alleging that the school illegally sought to crack down on protected political speech and asking the court to restore its access to campus facilities, funding, and event privileges. The chapter further alleged that the FFCR had no jurisdiction over it. FFCR is the collegiate arm of the state Republican Party.
“After the deactivation, UF sought to justify its unlawful decision by providing a false pretext as a basis, asserting that it had acted at the behest of a third-party group, the Florida Federation of College Republicans (FFCR), a group with no authority over or affiliation with UFCR. No university policy, rule, or law provides UF a lawful basis for the deactivation,” the UF chapter’s lawyer, Anthony Sabatini, wrote in a statement on X.
UF said that once FFCR is ready, the university will look at reactivating the local chapter under new leadership.
Sabatini previously represented Preston Damsky, a UF law student who sued the university after it expelled him over antisemitic social media posts, including one saying Jewish people “must be abolished by any means necessary,” according to the Miami Herald.
The antisemitism controversy is the second in weeks that has embroiled Florida’s higher education system.
The head of Florida International University’s Turning Point USA chapter resigned earlier this month following revelations that he sent numerous racist messages in a group chat for conservatives. Ian Valdes wrote and affirmed violent and explicit messages targeting both Jewish and black people in a WhatsApp group chat.
VERMONT GOP LEGISLATOR RESIGNS AFTER RACIST TEXTS EXPOSED IN GROUP CHAT
FIU President Jeanette Nunez, a former Florida lieutenant governor, said that university police are investigating the group chat’s “abhorrent and extremely disturbing language.”
“FIU does not and will not tolerate violence, hate, discrimination, harassment, racism, or antisemitism,” she said. “This is not who we are. This is not what FIU stands for.”
