The United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit will hear Oral Agument in the “New Paltz Free Speech Case,” Holmes and Partington v. Poskanzer et. al. (Docket # 08-1475)

Currently the date is set for the week of June 22, 2009.

The argument will determine whether the defendants, including SUNY New Paltz officials Steven Poskanzer and David Rooney, are entitled to immunity, which they have requested.  In order to receive immunity, SUNY must show that the students’ accusations do not allege bad-faith conduct.

However, the students allege numerous acts of misconduct, including:

• using taxpayer dollars to campaign in a student election
• using taxpayer dollars to hold secret breakfast meetings to slander student officials
• falsifying official documents
• filing perjurious police reports
• failing to intervene after judicial committee rules were blatantly violated
• telling faculty members that they were “looking for an opportunity to get rid of the worst troublemakers” on campus, and mentioning specific students by name

For more information about this controversy, including evidence showing that each of these allegations are true, please download and watch Campus Coup, an eighty-six minute documentary about this controversy.

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