BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The ACLU of Indiana has filed a lawsuit against Indiana University on behalf of three protesters who were banned from campus for taking part in a pro-Palestinian protest in Dunn Meadow — a stretch of campus that has served as an assembly area for student protests since 1969.
Pro-Palestinian protestors have stretched into the second week at Indiana University with students and faculty calling on the university to divest its investments in Israel. These protests join a wave of protests across the nation on college campuses that have led to thousands of arrests and newsfeeds full of students clashing with police.
IU was no different as state police descended on protestors at Dunn Meadow last week, tearing down tents and clashing with protestors who refused to give ground. The state police response generated plenty of controversy as snipers took positions on nearby roofs and state troopers in riot gear moved into Dunn Meadow to shove out peaceful protestors.
More than 56 people have been arrested so far by state police at Indiana University as protestors refuse to back down. The university itself has faced criticism for a last-minute rule change that sparked the state police presence as troopers warned protestors to tear down their tents or face physical removal from Dunn Meadow.
Since 1969, Dunn Meadow has been the designated student protest area with a long history of students staking down tents and raising signs in political protests. But last week, as word reached IU of the impending pro-Palesitian protest, the university rolled back more than 50 years of free speech assemblage and tradition by suddenly passing a rule change that outlawed tents.
While the last-minute policy change was posted online the morning of the first protest, this sudden change without warning or a chance for the public or student body to weigh in caused a wave of backlash as some labeled the move as justification for the university to call in police and break up the protest.
"Free speech is only protected for all when there are clear and consistent rules enforced—not when rules are changed overnight and established processes are ignored," said State Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington).
Many of those arrested by state police have not only been charged with misdemeanors, but have been banned from IU for one year.
The ACLU of Indiana's lawsuit against IU contends that these bans are unlawful and violations of free speech. The three parties represented in the lawsuit include an IU professor and an IU graduate student.
While the ban encompasses the campus as a whole, the lawsuit zeroes in on banning the plaintiffs from Dunn Meadow — a site specifically staked off for citizens, students and faculty to exercise their constitutional right to free speech.
Graduate student Madeleine Meldrum said it has been painful for her to be excluded from practicing her right to rally for a cause she believes in.
“It’s something I’m passionate about and I believe there is strength in standing together… being excluded from that group is quite violating," Meldrum said.
“Since 1969 Dunn Meadow has been a public forum, a place for persons to engage in First Amendment expression. Indiana University cannot preemptively ban persons from engaging in this protected expression by prohibiting them from entering Dunn Meadow for a year or more.
"Our future ability to engage in speech activities cannot be denied in this way. This is a prior restraint, and it is unconstitutional.”
ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk
Both Meldrum and the professor have had their bans temporarily lifted due to a university policy of lifting said ban during the appeal process.
Yesterday, student and faculty protestors called for the dismissal of IU President Pamela Whitten outside her on-campus residence. The Bloomington mayor has instructed the Bloomington Police Department to not be involved in the clash between protestors and state police on IU's campus.
ISP Superintendent Doug Carter said the university requested the state police's help after learning of the upcoming protests last week.
Carter said troopers tried to rationalize with protestors on Thursday, prior to the two sides clashing, but reminded the public that, "the First Amendment covers free speech but not hateful speech.”
On Thursday afternoon, some IU faculty and students held a rally called a "counter-protest" by some pro-Palestinian protestors that called on condemning the glorification of Hamas.
This reaction comes after some reported chants of “Intifada!” and “Israel is a Zionist racist state that needs to be destroyed!” from the Dunn Meadow encampment.
Rabbi Morris Zimbalist, who took part in the anti-Hamas gathering, said that while he hasn’t heard any of the inflammatory language from the pro-Palestinian encampment in Dunn Meadow, he doubts their rationale for protesting against Israel.
”Those who say they are here to support the Palestinians, in my opinion, are actually hurting the Palestinians because by default they are supporting Hamas and Hamas is oppressing the Palestinians, the Israelis and anyone who gets in their way,” he said. ”I think this is radicalized social justice for a cause that many of these students don’t understand.”