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

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

Facebook Event Here

Main Facebook Group Here

Ride-share forum here

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.

About 150 students at SUNY New Paltz held a protest yesterday, the latest salvo in the years-long controversy over the campus judicial procedure.

The protest centered around the ongoing and predictable tendency of campus police to conduct searches of dorm rooms, persons, and vehicles on campus. Police say that the searches are legal and have recently taken to obtaining explicit written consent, but the students say that the police are deceptive and intimidating.

"Students are tricked and scared into giving consent because the cops tell them that they'll be kicked out of school," said Gilbert Maldonado through a small megaphone. Maldonado said that two of his friends had been subject of the judicial procedure already this year.

More than dozens of students shared stories of searches or of the judicial procedure that their friends or they themselves had experienced.

The campus judicial procedure has been the subject of massive controversy, including a major scandal that rocked the SUNY Administration two years ago.

Last year, during a similar protest, three officers of the campus judicial committee walked into the Haggerty Administration Building and demanded that Student Affairs follow the written procedures of the student handbook. David Rooney, the Vice President of Student Affairs whose future remains uncertain after telling faculty members that he was "looking for an opportunity to get rid of" three student leaders, produced an opinion from a SUNY lawyer that SUNY was not required to follow their procedures in all cases.

Former student body Presidents Justin Holmes, R.J. Partington III, and Jessica Coleman attended the protest. Holmes addressed the crowd (Video of his speech on his blog), telling them to find new and creative nonviolent tactics to seek policy change.