UCLA Encampment Speech Suit From Protesters Clears Hurdle

UCLA pro-Palestine protesters’ claims that the university violated their free speech rights when clearing their encampment can proceed in state court, a Los Angeles judge ruled Tuesday.

Whether campus police were justified in declared the 2024 student and faculty encampment an unlawful assembly is a factual question that can’t be resolved at the demurrer stage, said California Superior Court, Los Angeles County Judge Samantha P. Jessner. Some alleged facts provide circumstantial evidence that the clearing of the encampment was motivated by retaliation, Jessner said.

“Defendants’ argument—and this case more broadly—strikes at the intersection between the constitutional right of free speech ...