Texas Pushback on Pro-Palestine Protests Draws Free Speech Suit

Student groups accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of violating the First Amendment by requiring universities to tamp down on what he deems anti-semitic speech and calling in state police to break up a string of pro-Palestine campus protests.

Abbott’s deployment of state troopers to dismantle demonstrations at the University of Texas at Austin twice in April constitutes viewpoint discrimination and runs afoul of a state law Abbott championed in 2019 promoting peaceful demonstrations on campuses, the groups said in a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas. Protest disruptions at University of Houston ...