A pro-Palestinian student group has accused the University of Maryland in College Park of violating students’ First Amendment rights by canceling a vigil planned for Oct. 7 to mourn the people who have died in the Gaza Strip over the past year.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Maryland on behalf of the U-Md. chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which alleges the university canceled the event after complaints from Jewish groups that a possible demonstration would be painful for mourning students. This decision, the suit argues, amounts to censorship.
“The University of Maryland cannot ignore the Constitution to censor Palestinian and Jewish students, simply because anti-Palestinian groups complain,” Palestine Legal staff attorney Tori Porell said in a news release. “It is the job of universities to seek out, not censor, robust debate on pressing social issues.”
