Robert Muise |
In his report, the federal judge recommended
denying the motion to dismiss filed by the SUNY-Buffalo officials, who argued
that the lawsuit failed to state a constitutional violation.
AFLC filed the case in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. (CBR), a California-based, pro-life organization; Gregg Cunningham, the executive director of CBR; Darius Hardwick, an employee of CBR; BU Students for Life; and two student officers of the pro-life student organization.
AFLC filed the case in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. (CBR), a California-based, pro-life organization; Gregg Cunningham, the executive director of CBR; Darius Hardwick, an employee of CBR; BU Students for Life; and two student officers of the pro-life student organization.
For two days back in April, CBR partnered with
the SUNY-Buffalo chapter of Students for Life to bring CBR’s Genocide Awareness
Project (GAP) to the university campus. GAP is a traveling photo-mural
exhibit that compares abortion to historically recognized forms of genocide,
such as the Holocaust.
CBR and the student organization followed the
university’s procedures to reserve a prime location outside of the Student
Union for the anti-abortion display. The request was initially met with
resistance from university officials. However, the organizers pointed out
that this location had been reserved in the past for student speech activity;
therefore, to deny access to this forum for the anti-abortion display would
violate the First Amendment. The officials reluctantly approved the
request.
During the actual GAP display, however,
university officials permitted protestors to purposely block the graphic,
anti-abortion images. At times, the student protestors would use
umbrellas and bed sheets to accomplish their task. When the organizers of
the event requested assistance from the university police, including its chief
of police, they refused, thus prompting this lawsuit.
In his report, the federal judge concluded that
AFLC had set forth sufficient factual allegations to demonstrate a violation of
the First Amendment, stating: “Plaintiffs thus have pled that what defendants
did or allowed equated to a denial of the use of the reserved area, since their
message was obstructed as much as if defendants had forbidden the GAP exhibit
outright.”
Robert Muise, AFLC Co-Founder and Senior
Counsel, and another former guest on Faith on Trial, commented: “Government
officials have an affirmative duty to protect a private citizen’s right to peacefully
engage in free speech, particularly when he or she is doing so pursuant to a
permit. Here, SUNY-Buffalo officials grossly breached that duty in
violation of the U.S. Constitution. And while the judge’s report and
recommendation is a first round victory, we are confident that we can prove the
factual allegations in the lawsuit to ensure an ultimate and final victory.”
David Yerushalmi, AFLC Co-Founder and Senior
Counsel, added: “Instead of fostering the free exchange of ideas in the
‘marketplace of ideas’ that is a university campus, SUNY-Buffalo officials
legitimized and encouraged its students to respond to political speech they
don’t like with censorship and the denial of free speech. This is very
much the tactic of Alinskyite progressives, who would rather violate the
Constitution by denying speech that is contrary to the established ‘liberal
orthodoxy.’”
AFLC is asking the court to declare that university officials violated its clients’ fundamental constitutional rights, to permanently enjoin the officials from permitting protestors to disrupt and silence future anti-abortion speech activities on campus, and to award nominal damages.
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