GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A federal judge ordered the University of Florida (UF) to temporarily readmit a law student who was expelled for making antisemitic and other racist comments.
According to 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.” Ignatiev was a professor, historian, and author most known for his controversial theories on race, including his call to abolish “whiteness,” which he defined as the access to white privilege.
Damsky also replied on X to a Jewish UF professor, “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.”
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Damsky additionally wrote in seminar papers that the U.S. was a “race-based” nation that should be preserved for the “betterment of White Americans.”
UF expelled Damsky after the school determined he violated the student code of conduct with his writings. The university told Damsky he had “created a material and substantial disruption to the academic operation of the UF College of Law” and that it received reports of safety concerns from other students. Damsky subsequently sued the school on Sept. 14, arguing the school violated his First Amendment rights by expelling him.
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor ruled in Damsky’s favor Monday, granting a preliminary injunction requiring the university to return him to normal standing by Dec. 1. Winsor noted that UF did not show that Damsky’s speech “constituted a true threat or was otherwise proscribable.” While Winsor wrote in his ruling that Damsky has been a “controversial figure” at the school and “seems to enjoy pushing boundaries and provoking others,” he defended his comments as protected political speech.
“The University, of course, has an interest in maintaining order, but it has no interest in violating the First Amendment to achieve that goal,” he said.
UF can choose to appeal the preliminary injunction. A trial is set for May.
