Pro-Palestinian protests from New York to California have dominated the news in recent weeks, some simmering as peaceful encampments, others escalating into takeovers of campus buildings and leading to student arrests.
Hundreds were arrested at Columbia University and City College in New York City earlier this week, and police broke up encampment protests at SUNY Purchase and SUNY New Paltz late Thursday and arrested dozens more . Encampments have also sprung up at the University of Rochester, Cornell University and Syracuse University.
If you’re a student, college employee or bystander, you might wonder about legal versus illegal protest actions, and how to know the difference.
Here are some guidelines to keep in mind, from legal experts and the history of First Amendment freedoms.
What's behind the protests? Why are students protesting at Columbia and around the nation? Here's what shaped today's movements
Where does free speech come into play?
The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment covers a wide swath of speech types, but has its limits.
It’s so wide ranging that it is easier to single out the things it doesn’t cover, said Lindsie Rank, the Campus Rights Advocacy Director with the non-partisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE,) .
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Rank, a lawyer, has a background in social science and advises protesters on both sides of the aisle on their rights and restrictions when it comes to protest movements.
“On a public college campus, the First Amendment is in effect in full force,” Rank said.
“(Students) have the freedom of expression to engage in protest in open outdoor areas of campus,” which can be considered “public forum”-type areas, she noted.
Live updates: Police break up encampments at NYU, The New School; other protests continue
Things that aren’t covered under the First Amendment include violence — things like breaking windows or damaging property would be considered crimes, and aren’t protected — and true threats, like telling another person you’re going to hurt or harm them.
Lawmakers, students and faculty have raised concerns of harassment and threats toward Jewish students by pro-Palestinian protesters in recent weeks. Congress passed a bill Wednesday that more clearly defines “antisemitism,” in hopes of providing guardrails for colleges discerning between criticism of Israel and illegal, discriminatory conduct.
Another unprotected action would be “incitement,” which can be defined as directing a riled-up crowd to do something unlawful — a question that has been hotly debated in recent years regarding former President Donald Trump’s connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, rally and attack at the U.S. Capitol.
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Private versus public campuses
Private colleges and universities have much more discretion than public ones when it comes to restrictions around protests and rallies, and they are not required to honor Constitutional rights, according to FIRE.
However, many of them have policies that in some way guarantee freedom of expression for the student body, and often reflect First Amendment principles. Students are allowed to protest on those campuses to the extent that those policies and codes of conduct allow.
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Time, place, manner: Here's why they matter
Both public and private universities are allowed to place parameters around rallies and protests regarding when, where and how they are conducted.
“While an encampment might be a peaceful protest, it still might not be a protected peaceful protest,” Rank said.
For example, just like a town may place restrictions on whether you can use a megaphone to blast music in your backyard at 9 p.m., a college can require that protests not interfere with ongoing student education, or block walkways through campus. A campus or the municipality surrounding it may require permits for tables or amplification, or for any protest that spills out onto area roads or sidewalks.
Syracuse University, which has had an encampment on campus since Monday , handed out flyers to students explaining that campus policies allow students to “assemble in an orderly manner and engage in peaceful protest, demonstration and picketing,” but restrict discrimination against any one group or disruption of university academic operations or events, among other stipulations.
Another thing to consider for college administrations in response to protests is even-handedness, Rank said — are they applying the same standards to one group as another?
And when force is used — such as when police were requested to clear an encampment at the University of California Los Angeles in the early hours of Thursday morning after violence erupted the night before — is it proportional to the matter at hand?
“Having an even-keeled and proportional response to even unprotected speech is going to help have a better culture of free expression on your campus,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: SUNY Purchase, New Paltz college protests: What's legal and what's not? What experts say
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