Ohio State Sued For Not Letting Richard Spencer Speak
Image by Getty Images
By Sam Kestenbaum October 23, 2017
An organizer of campus tours for white nationalist Richard Spencer is suing Ohio State University in federal court after the school refused to rent campus space to Spencer, citing a “substantial risk to public safety.”
“The University values freedom of speech,” the school wrote in a letter to Spencer’s tour organizer Cameron Padgett. “Nonetheless, the University has determined that it is not presently able to accommodate Mr. Padgett’s request to rent space at the university due to substantial risks to public safety, as well as material and substantial disruption.”
This comes days after Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida, which disrupted campus life and attracted hundreds of protestors. The governor of Florida declared a state of emergency before the speech, and security costs for the event have been estimated at $600,000.
In the hours after the speech, three men were arrested after allegedly making Nazi salutes, repeating Hitler chants and then shooting at a group of protesters. The gunshot missed the group of six to eight protesters and the men were apprehended later that night, according to police.
Spencer’s team has sued other universities for denying them a platform. When Michigan State University refused Spencer a space last month, for example, Padgett also sued the school, in a case that has yet to be resolved.
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
