The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging as unconstitutional a policy that Cal State Long Beach administrators recently relied on to warn several professors that they broke campus rules when they used megaphones, bullhorns or other amplification devices during a pro-Palestinian protest on campus.
In a five-page letter sent last week, ACLU attorney Jonathan Markovitz told Patricia A. Pérez, the associate vice president of faculty affairs, that the school’s “Time, Place and Manner” Policy “very likely” violates the First Amendment and the California Constitution.
Markovitz penned the letter on behalf of CSULB professors Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson and Jake Alimahomed Wilson, who were among at least five faculty members who last month received an email from the school warning that their conduct at a pro-Palestine protest on May 2 violated school policy.
Jeff Cook, a spokesman for the school, said the policy has been in place since 2018 and was agreed to by the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 educators statewide.
The email, he continued, was sent for the “purposes of ensuring their awareness of those regulations and the University’s expectations that they will comply going forward.”
Nearly a dozen professors took part in the May demonstrations that saw nearly 1,000 protestors. Speakers addressed a crowd via a bullhorn as part of a teach-in session outside a school administration building.
CSULB’s policy prohibits any use of noise amplifiers louder than 85 decibels — equivalent to a vacuum cleaner or traffic — outside of select areas and times on campus that vary depending on the day.
It also requires advanced permission to use sound amplification on university property, though it doesn’t specify how requests are granted or denied, Markovitz said.
Because of this, Markovitz interpreted the policy as “poorly written and unclear,” and that it restricts “substantially more speech than necessary.” The lack of clarity, he added, risks “arbitrary enforcement” towards faculty who may not know when they are breaking the rules.
“A law that is so vague that it does not provide notice to the public of what conduct is prohibited violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Markovitz said, adding his recommendation that the school should pause the policy until it can be revised.
Colleagues of the professors have said in an op-ed that they believe the warning emails to be retaliatory, as the five faculty members were the same who co-penned a May 20 article condemning the university’s relationship with the Boeing Company — the company has been awarded several contracts that arm Israeli forces.
“I hope that this is mere coincidence, but the correlation is at least notable,” Markovitz wrote.
In their op-ed CSULB colleagues went further, saying the college’s warning “feels like a clear intimidation tactic meant to scare these five professors into silence about any academic activities they want to pursue on campus concerning the Palestinian struggle.”
The school disagrees with the allegations. A spokesperson said the email was sent to more than five professors — but fewer than 10 people total — and there was no relationship between the article and the warnings. The college said no students or employees have been disciplined for violation of these policies.
“We reaffirm that campus policies related to ‘Time, Place, and Manner’ are viewpoint-neutral and vigorously deny that any member of our campus community has been targeted or treated unfairly based on the content of their speech,” said Cook, the spokesperson.
CSULB said it “appreciates” the ACLU’s input on its amplified sound policy and said it is amenable to making changes. “Our review of those concerns continues, leaving open the potential for refinement of those guidelines, to the extent appropriate,” Cook wrote.
This comes as universities enter the second month of their fall term, following a wave of springtime protests that resulted in hundreds of students being arrested and others facing academic reprimand. Campuses such as the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, for example, have fortified their campus with checkpoints and increased security.
Administrators across the 23-campus California State University system have enacted zero-tolerance policies for encampments and banned the use of face masks during on-campus protests.
In an Aug. 27 letter, Cal State Chancellor Mildred García explained the school system was compelled by the recent passage of Senate Bill 108 to update its systemwide policy and to notify students ahead of the fall term. The school system must submit a report to state lawmakers on whether it met these requirements by Oct. 1.
“The policy is not new and merely restates and clarifies what have always been well-established values, rules and expectations throughout the CSU for decades,” García wrote.
When asked, CSULB officials said they have not hired any additional security to patrol the campus.