First Amendment Challenge to Suspension from University of Texas for Pro-Palestinian Protest Can Go Forward

Qaddumi challenges his suspension from the University of Texas at Austin as a violation of his constitutional rights.

He was involved in planning a protest, to include a "walk out of class," "guest speaker," and two "teach-in[s]", about ongoing violence in Gaza in April 2024 .

He alleges these planned protest activities were peaceful in nature, but university officials claimed that protests held by aligned groups at " Columbia , Rutgers, and Yale " were "creating campus encampments".

Supreme Court has long recognized that universities are "vital centers for the Nation's intellectual life" The characteristic of universities as an environment for vigorous debate may be "outcome determinative" when deciding whether a restriction on student speech is viewpoint discrimination versus a restriction of foreseeable disruption to campus activities.