Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Sunday defended his administration’s decision to direct Florida universities to deactivate chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine that express support for Hamas’s terror attacks.
The directive received criticism on free speech grounds from both the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
“It’s a shameful political ploy. . . . It’s unconstitutional. It’s utter hypocrisy for someone who railed against left wing cancel culture,” Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X.
DeSantis told NBC’s Meet the Press that his administration’s decision is “not cancel culture.”
“This group, they themselves said, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack, that they don’t just stand in solidarity, that they are part of this Hamas movement,” he said. “And so, yeah, you have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can’t provide material support to terrorism.”
He said the groups have “linked themselves to Hamas.”
“And so we absolutely decertified them. They should not get one red cent of taxpayer dollars,” he said. “And we also have strong laws in Florida against fundraising for groups like Hamas, and we are enforcing those vigorously. It’s not a First Amendment issue. That’s a material support to terrorism issue.”
Last week, the DeSantis administration told two state universities to deactivate chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine after finding the groups had violated laws banning antisemitism.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) came out against the DeSantis administration’s policy in a statement arguing that state government cannot force public colleges to de-recognize the student clubs.
“There’s no indication from the chancellor’s letter that any action from Florida’s Students for Justice in Palestine groups went beyond expression fully protected by the First Amendment,” the group said. “This directive is a dangerous — and unconstitutional — threat to free speech. If it goes unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government suppression.”