Young America’s Foundation is working with Mountain States Legal Foundation to demand that the University of California – Los Angeles immediately approve a pro-Israel Young Americans for Freedom event featuring Robert Spencer. As stated in the demand letter, should university officials fail to comply by close of business this evening, they will find themselves facing a lawsuit for violating the constitutional rights of their students.
The YAF chapter submitted a request in mid-April to host the prominent counter-jihad expert for a lecture, entitled “Why Everything You Know About Palestine Is Wrong,” but that request went ignored for more than two weeks.
When UCLA YAF Chairman Matthew Weinberg was finally able to get a meeting with administrators, they informed him that the event’s approval status is contingent on whether or not the school’s pro-Hamas encampment is still around on May 15, the proposed date.
During the meeting, Police Sergeant Roland Ruiz said, “I can say from the PD perspective, we can’t approve–we don’t know yet–how long the encampments will go on, and so we wouldn’t yet give our approval.”
The demand letter, directed to UCLA’s Interim Chief Campus Counsel Ina Bryant, outlines several constitutional violations by the university, including undue delays and viewpoint discrimination.
The letter details the university’s failure to act on the event application, a concerning lack of response to communications, and the potential threat of a “heckler’s veto” by opposing groups.
Given the tight timeline with the event now less than two weeks away, UCLA has very little time left to do the right thing before further action must be taken. Additionally, the letter reminds administrators of the personal liability they each bear should they continue to infringe upon students’ constitutional rights.
