via
Getty)
Sending
a
White
Supremacist
back
to
class
is
a
strange
way
to
start
the
month
but
hey,
it
is
Florida.
Back
in
August
the
University
of
Florida
expelled
Preston
Damsky
over
an
antisemitic
tweet.
Damsky
had
earned
notoriety
earlier
as
the
guy
who
got
an
A
for
writing
a
paper
laying
out
the
constitutionally
backed
case
for
a
White
ethnostate.
Good
on
them
for
the
effort.
Law
school
is
difficult
enough
without
going
to
class
with
hate
speech
gunners.
But
Damsky
took
them
to
court,
arguing
that
kicking
him
out
for
his
tweet
was
a
freedom
of
speech
violation.
Even
if
you
don’t
like
the
argument,
it
was
good
enough
to
get
a
judge
to
rule
in
his
favor.
Reuters
has
coverage:
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.
I
think
this
outcome
makes
sense.
Shitty
thing
to
say,
but
without
some
aspect
of
immediacy,
his
“abolish”
advocacy
reads
more
like
impotent
wishful
thinking
than
it
does
a
legitimate
threat.
And
while
it
might
have
sparked
enough
environmental
hostility
at
a
private
college
to
justify
giving
a
student
the
boot,
the
First
Amendment
thumbs
the
scale
in
Damsky’s
favor
at
a
public
university.
At
least
for
now.
There’s
another
case
worth
keeping
on
your
radar.
A
professor
at
the
University
of
Oklahoma
was
put
on
administrative
leave
after
giving
a
student
a
failing
grade
for
a
poorly
written
paper.
This
time,
we
have
a
rubric
that
we
can
compare
the
assignment
with:
Here’s
the
paper:
As
you
should
be
able
to
see,
the
paper
is
not
good.
The
paper
doesn’t
even
meet
the
“It
was
revealed
to
me
in
a
dream”
standard
of
citation,
advances
arguments
a
step
from
being
circular,
and,
above
all
else,
makes
no
clear
connections
to
the
assigned
reading.
For
example,
the
student
claims
—
and
I’m
paraphrasing
here
—
that
God
had
deliberate,
teleological
ends
in
mind
when
he
made
man
and
woman.
Cool
beans,
but
what
does
that
have
to
do
with
the
assigned
article?
However,
none
of
that
matters
because
the
content
is
religious
in
nature.
The
student
cried
censorship
and
here
we
are.
The
whole
scenario
screams
Turning
Point
USA
test
case
for
Jesus
being
the
answer
or
else.
It’s
a
shame
that
Turning
Point
is
spinning
this
as
an
attack
on
Christianity
when
all
it
evidences,
if
anything,
is
an
attack
on
education.
Does
this
honestly
read
like
a
college-level
essay?
Since
when
does
the
First
Amendment
provide
constitutional
protection
for
sloppy
scholarship?
I
don’t
think
I
forgot
any
of
the
First
Amendment’s
freedoms…
it’s
not
like
I’m
Amy
Coney
Barrett.
Samantha’s
essay
reads
like
a
Youth
Pastor’s
sermon
on
sex
and
gender
for
middle
schoolers
and
Damsky’s
White
Supremacist
essay
is
just
plagerized
KKK
constitutionalism
with
a
modernized
flair.
I’m
a
strong
advocate
for
free
speech;
I
just
wish
the
speech
wasn’t
as
shoddy.
Judge
Orders
Readmission
Of
Law
Student
Who
Posted
‘Jews
Must
Be
Abolished’
[Reuters]
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
is
learning
to
swim, is
interested
in
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.