The University of Colorado is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a student and campus employee who allege the university violated their free speech and due process rights when they were disciplined for protesting the war in Gaza at a campus career fair.
According to the January 2025 complaint, sophomore Mari Rosenfeld and recent graduate Max Inman participated in an Oct. 3 protest organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to oppose U.S. support for Israel and the involvement of corporations in the war. During the protest, Inman entered the Glenn Miller Ballroom — where a career fair was taking place — and used a bullhorn to claim that attending companies were profiting from the war. A police officer ordered the protesters to leave, and they complied.
CU then issued an “interim exclusion” order barring Rosenfeld and Inman from campus activities other than classes. The university also placed SJP in “bad standing.” The plaintiffs argue these actions violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as a Colorado law protecting student protests.
In a motion to dismiss filed March 14, an attorney for the university argued CU has the authority to impose reasonable restrictions on student speech, particularly when it disrupts scheduled events. The exclusion lasted two months, the attorney argued, during which the plaintiffs were allowed to exercise other forms of free speech such as “chalking, holding signs, protesting, or engaging in other speech on the way to or from class, wearing clothing with protected messages, or engaging in speech with faculty or other students right before, during, and after class.”
“There is no law clearly establishing that Plaintiffs have the right to disrupt scheduled University events for other students without being disciplined,” the attorney wrote.
The motion also argues that two officials named in the lawsuit — Dean of Students Devin Cramer and Deputy Dean of Students Holly Nelson — are protected by qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields public officials from liability unless they violate “clearly established” constitutional rights. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages related to claims against Cramer and Nelson.
The lawsuit also names the University of Colorado and CU Boulder’s chancellor, Justin Schwartz. The plaintiffs are seeking court orders to prohibit the university and Schwartz from barring future pro-Palestinian protests at the UMC and to remove disciplinary notations related to the protest from their student records.
The lawsuit is one of several recent legal challenges against universities over disciplinary actions stemming from student protests related to the war in Gaza. Such cases highlight a tension universities face in balancing free speech rights with maintaining campus order.
The plaintiffs will have an opportunity to respond to the motion to dismiss before the judge issues a ruling.
As former CU students, who participated in the anti-Vietnam war protests, where we disrupted events, including blocking the 28th St. bridge, we support those students who have taken a stand against the Palestinian genocide. At that time the University had not yet abandoned our First Amendment rights and we made use of them to protest a similar kind of barbarism in SE Asia. We never imagined at the time that there would eventually be a return to a New McCarthyism in which the political Right in the administration would utilize its power to intimidate students into silence.
The majority of the democratic party also supports this, including the use of state violence on those who stand against the genocide.
Please put in a link to the court filing!