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The ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday on behalf of three individuals who received no-trespass orders after being arrested for protesting the war in Gaza on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington.
The lawsuit alleges that IU violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting them from returning to the campus to rejoin the ongoing protests.
The plaintiffs are Bloomington resident Jasper Wirtshafter, an IU graduate who is not currently a student at the university; Benjamin Robinson, a tenured associate professor of Germanic studies at IU; and Madeleine Meldrum, a current graduate student at IU.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, lists the IU Board of Trustees and President Pamela Whitten as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, Wirtshafter and Meldrum were arrested on April 25, while Robinson was arrested on April 27. All three received no-trespass orders prohibiting them from setting foot on campus for one year, and all have appealed the orders.
“Today’s filing contends that these bans are an unlawful prior restraint on the free speech rights of the plaintiffs, each of whom wants to rejoin the ongoing protests on campus,” the ACLU of Indiana said in a news release.
The arrests took place in Dunn Meadow, an area of the Bloomington campus that the university had deemed a “public forum for expression on all subjects,” according to a policy enacted by the IU Board of Trustees in 1969.
The ACLU said over the last week, at least 56 arrests were made during pro-Palestinian protests in Dunn Meadow.
“Since 1969 Dunn Meadow has been a public forum, a place for persons to engage in First Amendment expression,” ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said in written remarks. “Indiana University cannot preemptively ban persons from engaging in this protected expression by prohibiting them from entering Dunn Meadow for a year or more. Our future ability to engage in speech activities cannot be denied in this way. This is a prior restraint, and it is unconstitutional.”
In a statement to Inside INdiana Business, IU spokesperson Mark Bode said the university does not comment on pending litigation.
The original 1969 policy said that from the hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., any signs, symbols or structures could be used for a demonstration without advance permission.
However, that policy was changed on April 24, one day before the protests were set to begin, to require permission “prior to the erection of temporary or permanent installation of any structures, including tents and signage, in Dunn Meadow, regardless of the time of day of the planned display,” the lawsuit said.
In a letter to faculty obtained by the Indiana Capital Chronicle last week, IU President Pamela Whitten said the last-minute policy change was made to balance safety and free speech.
The ACLU notes in the suit that despite the policy change, Dunn Meadow remains a public forum, and many protesters who were arrested received no-trespass orders, some of which include specific bans limited to Dunn Meadow.
“Plaintiffs have been damaged by the defendants’ actions in banning them from engaging in future demonstrations and expressive activities in Dunn Meadow,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiffs are being caused irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law.”
The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction allowing them to return to Dunn Meadow to continue participating in the protests, as well as an undisclosed amount in damages and attorney’s fees, plus “all other proper relief.”
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