Florida College Sheds Suit Over Removing Campus Protesters

A University of South Florida student group can’t proceed with claims that the school’s suspension and expulsion policies violated its free-speech right to protest on various issues.

The policies—including those prohibiting gatherings during final exam week—were content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions, US District Court for the Middle District of Florida Judge Steven D. Merryday said Thursday. He previously gave the plaintiffs a chance to amend their complaint to cure its defects following his first dismissal.

The suit was filed amid the unrest on college campuses brought about by the Trump administration’s efforts to do away with diversity, inclusion, and equity policies and address pro-Palestinian protests at institutions of higher learning.

Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society has been protesting on various issues since at least 2020, when it was suspended for violating Covid-19 containment measures. A series of suspensions and expulsions that resulted in SDS being kicked off campus in 2024 following an exam-week sit-in outside the student center.

Merryday concluded that none of the policies the group challenged were content-based. A “public university may ‘regulate student expression when it substantially interferes with the work of the school or impinges upon the rights of other students,’” he said.

The policy prohibiting protests during exam week excluded all protesters regardless of their views and was reasonably tied to the school’s goal of providing an environment that would help students prepare for exams, Merryday said. It also was limited to the last two weeks of every academic term, and existed before the exam-week protest that prompted the group’s expulsion.

A policy requiring groups to reserve tables for recruitment events was also upheld as neither a prior restraint nor content-based.

LegalSmiths Consulting Group LLC and Andrew Stoll of Brooklyn, NY, represent the plaintiffs. Greenberg Traurig PA represents the defendants.

The case is Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Soc’y v. Law, M.D. Fla., No. 25-cv-2752, 4/9/26.