Supporters of white nationalist Richard Spencer have dropped their lawsuit against the University of Cincinnati, UC announced today, and he won’t make a planned appearance at the school.
Georgia State University student Cameron Padgett, the Spencer supporter who initially requested space for the speaking engagement on UC’s campus and who threatened to sue the school if one wasn’t provided, filed the suit over a $10,000 security fee UC assessed Spencer for a potential appearance, potentially over the school’s spring break.. Attorneys representing Padgett said the fee amounted to a violation of Spencer’s First Amendment rights.
That fee came after last year’s deadly “Unite the Right” event, which ended in the death of an anti-racist activist. Spencer helped organize that rally.
Other schools have incurred big security expenses related to Spencer’s talks. The University of Florida, for instance, paid more than $600,000 for security at a Spencer speech there last year.
“As you may recall, no one at UC invited Spencer to come to our campus,” UC President Neville Pinto said in a statement today. “His supporters had approached us as a public university to provide a date for him to speak. In line with our commitment to free speech, we proposed a date during our Spring Break – a date that we felt would maximize the safety of our community. However, that proposal was contingent on the conditions that he sign the university’s standard rental agreement and pay a security and rental fee. His representatives instead refused to comply with those requirements and filed a lawsuit against UC. The university held firm in its position and chose to defend against the suit in court.”
This article appears in Apr 18-25, 2018.
