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A federal judge ordered the University of Florida to temporarily reinstate a law student who was expelled after making controversial statements online and in academic papers about race and religion, including one social media post calling for Jews to “be abolished.”
According to the court order reported by Reuters, UF Levin College of Law student Preston Damsky was suspended in April after writing on X, “My position on Jews is simple: whatever Harvard professor Noel Ignatiev meant by his call to ‘abolish the White race by any means necessary’ is what I think must be done with Jews. Jews must be abolished by any means necessary.”
He also replied on X to a UF Jewish professor, who engaged him in conversation about the post, “Did Ignatiev want Whites murdered? If so, were his words as objectionable as mine? If Ignatiev sought genocide, then surely a genocide of all Whites would be an even greater outrage than a genocide of all Jews, given the far greater number of Whites.”
After an investigation, in late May, UF charged him with violations of the student code of conduct, based on these social media posts and comments in two seminar papers, and he was expelled. Damsky sued on Sept. 14, arguing his expulsion violated the First Amendment.
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In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor ruled in Damsky’s favor, granting a preliminary injunction requiring the university to return him to normal standing and to be readmitted to the law school by December 1. He said that UF did not show that Damsky’s speech “constituted a true threat or was otherwise proscribable.”
Winsor cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Virginia v. Black to emphasize that even hateful or deeply offensive expression, such as cross burning, cannot be categorically banned simply because it is upsetting.
“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 wrote.
According to the order, UF told Damsky he had “created a material and substantial disruption to the academic operation of the UF College of Law,” increased security, and barred him from campus after receiving reports of safety concerns from other students.
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Winsor’s order noted that Damsky has been a “controversial figure” at the university since he enrolled and “seems to enjoy pushing boundaries and provoking others.” The judge referenced two of the student’s seminar papers, which drew attention for arguing the U.S. was a “race-based” nation that should be preserved for the “betterment of White Americans.”
Damsky defended his comments as protected political speech. Anthony Sabatini, his attorney, and Lake County commissioner, hailed the judge’s ruling.
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“HUGE First Amendment win today on behalf of my client Preston Damsky against UFLaw,” he wrote on X. “Damsky was unlawfully punished in response to his political opinions, we sued, & now a federal judge has ruled UF’s actions unconstitutional.”
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The University of Florida told Fox News Digital it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The university can choose to appeal the preliminary injunction and the trial is set for May, according to Reuters.
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