A federal Judge has temporarily blocked Florida International University from enforcing its sweeping ban on protests inside campus buildings, including disciplinary action taken against students who silently stood against the school’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities this year.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra ruled that ICEBreakers and seven student plaintiffs are likely to prevail in their claim that an FIU regulation blocking indoor protests violates the First Amendment, as it prohibits expression regardless of whether the actions materially disrupt university operations.
The preliminary injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, bars FIU President Jeanette Nuñez, Board of Trustees Chair Carlos Duart and their agents from enforcing the regulation against the named students and other ICEBreakers members while the lawsuit proceeds.
It does not formally protect everyone at FIU, although Becerra’s reasoning casts doubt on the regulation’s constitutionality more broadly.
FIU’s rule, 110(3), prohibits “protests, parades, marches, picketing, demonstrations, and other similar expressive activities” inside university buildings. Unlike FIU’s rule for outdoor expression, the indoor prohibition does not limit discipline to conduct that materially and substantially disrupts university operations or infringes on others’ rights.
The dispute arose from a March 13 event at FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus, where Nuñez interviewed former baseball star Alex Rodriguez.
About 10 to 15 students wearing “ICE OFF FIU” shirts — referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — stood silently, faced the audience and left. They said nothing and carried nothing. The court said the demonstration lasted no more than a few minutes and the discussion continued without interruption.
An FIU official overseeing the event later said no attendees complained and the protest “did not disrupt the event.” Nevertheless, FIU charged seven students. Six ultimately received written reprimands and orders to record two-minute “video reflections” explaining their understanding of the rule and how they would apply it.
FIU warned noncompliance could trigger holds blocking class registration, financial aid, transcripts and diplomas.
Becerra’s order stays those sanctions.
“Blocking this regulation means students can start the fall semester without fear of being punished for peacefully protesting,” ICEBreakers President Max Fondren said. “Our work to end FIU’s cruel and unnecessary decision to deputize campus police as ICE agents will continue.”
Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, Becerra wrote that the standard has remained unchanged for decades: Student speech may not be curtailed unless it materially disrupts the educational mission, causes substantial disorder or invades others’ rights.
FIU argued it may impose reasonable restrictions to maintain order indoors and said its rule is enforced in a content- and viewpoint-neutral manner. Becerra acknowledged that conduct permissible outdoors could be disruptive inside a classroom, but said the Constitution does not allow FIU’s categorical approach.
“A student can wear a hat, a T-shirt, or as they did in Tinker, an armband to protest,” she wrote. “In any event, the argument is neither here nor there because even if the Regulation was attempting to limit only disruptive activity, disruptive activity alone fails Constitutional scrutiny.”
The ruling came 12 days after ICEBreakers — which formed to oppose FIU’s participation in the federal 287(g) program, under which campus police may perform certain immigration-enforcement functions — and the students sued Nuñez and other FIU officials.
FIU had been warned months earlier that its response was constitutionally suspect.
In a June 18 letter, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression urged Nuñez to drop the conduct cases and rewrite what it called an overbroad and vague policy. The organization’s Program Counsel, Garrett Gravley, warned the rule could apply to a Malcolm X shirt, a Palestinian keffiyeh, an Israeli flag lapel pin or purple clothing worn for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“Clothing is, by its very nature, expressive,” Gravley wrote, arguing FIU could target disruption without prohibiting all indoor protests. He added that the regulation runs counter to the school’s stated value of supporting “freedom — of thought and expression.”