WHAT: Oral Argument in a student free-speech case, establishing whether or not college administrators are immune from student lawsuits.

WHEN: Friday, June 26th, at 9:30AM – 10:15AM.

WHERE: The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Court House – 500 Pearl St., New York, NY

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Two unlikely litigants will argue in the Second Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Lower Manhattan on Friday, June 26, 2009.

They are Justin Holmes and R.J. Partington III – elected student leaders-turned plaintiffs in a case that tests the liability of campus administrators who retaliate against students whose politics they find objectionable.

The “SUNY Free Speech Case,” officially known as Holmes  and Partington v. Poskanzer et. al. (2nd Circuit Docket 08-1475), has drawn the attention of activists and academics alike.

The suit was filed in 2006 by the then-students who alleged that SUNY Officials targeted them for their politics, kicking them out of school immediately after they won the student government elections.  As candidates, they had vowed to record and transcribe high-level talks with administrators on a popular website they had started and urge the campus administration to abandon its “zero-tolerance” approach to drug use on campus.

Several members of the faculty backed the students up, blowing the whistle on SUNY officials who they say made it clear weeks in advance that they were looking for ways to get rid of the students.

Initially, the courts agreed with the students and ordered the Administration to reinstate them – they have since graduated and left.

However, the same court later granted the administration immunity, saying that the students failed to allege conduct that didn’t fall within the scope of what the officials might have believed were their legitimate duties.

The students alleged that the officials filed perjurious police reports, falsified official documents, urged faculty members to look for ways to target them, spent taxpayer and student dollars campaigning in a student election and then performing “damage control,” and broke numerous campus rules regarding judicial procedure.  With the with the help of key faculty members, they have provided direct evidence of their claims.

The student leaders say that although they have received advice from a number of attorneys, they intend to deliver the argument to the Judges themselves.

An 86-minute documentary, Campus Coup, chronicles the entire story.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at 11:45 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.