On Oct. 8, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor ruled that Florida State University must continue to pay Jack Denton, former FSU student senate president, for the remainder of his term but ruled that Denton will not return to his position.
Winsor also found that Denton’s first amendment rights were violated.
The ruling was the result of Denton seeking a preliminary injunction.
Over the summer, Denton was ousted from his position after he made controversial political statements in a private group chat with members of the Catholic Student Union. He criticized the Black Lives Matter organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and Reclaim the Block in one discussion.
“BlackLivesMatter.com fosters ‘a queer-affirming network’ and defends transgenderism,” Denton wrote. “The ACLU defends laws protecting abortion facilities and sued states that restrict access to abortion. Reclaim the Block claims less police will make our communities safer and advocates for cutting PDs’ budgets. This is a little less explicit, but I think it’s contrary to the Church’s teaching on the common good.”
Soon after a student posted screenshots of the conversation on social media, Denton was removed by a vote of no-confidence and replaced by Ahmad Daraldik.
Denton initially appealed to the student court and Vice President of Student Affairs Amy Hecht. After his case was never heard by the student court, Denton began his lawsuit and preliminary injunction motion.
According to the order released Thursday, Denton sued, contending that his First Amendment rights were violated. He sued five people—three university administrators and two student senators—in their official capacities, making it effectively a suit against FSU.
In his emergency motion for preliminary injunction, Denton sought to be reinstated as president. In the preliminary order, Winsor ruled that Denton will not be reinstated.
Winsor said in the order that reinstating Denton would cause “more harm than good” and cause “disruption and turmoil” within the student senate.
However, he ruled that because FSU violated Denton’s First Amendment rights, FSU must continue to pay Denton for the rest of the student senate president’s term for six hours per week. According to the order, the student senate president makes $9.00 per hour, and Denton’s term was supposed to continue through October.
“Denton was serving in student government, and he had a constitutional right not to have that taken away from him based on his privately expressing his religious views,” Winsor’s order states.
As the case moves forward, a scheduling conference is scheduled for Oct. 19.
President Thrasher had a chance to correct this situation but He failed to re- instate Mr. Denton. I never received a response to my FSU foundation email.Hence I will no longer be contributing to any future fundraising requests or donations to the School of Arts & Science .I was a proud FSU Alumnus and former athlete in the Class of 1975.
I agree with the Judge.
Good. Those commies at FSU got the stinging slap of the law. It won't stop them of course. But now they know its there.
FSU is just as bad as the California University System. They discriminate, make hate speech, anti-Christian, anti-conservative and they punish any student that disagrees with them.
They are absolutely against free speech. This has been building since the 1980s when I was a student.
This group that was just hired to assist in the presidential search will only bring the very most liberal candidates to the table. That is why they were hired. The legislature should reduce their funding and pass some legislation to force free speech and multiple opinions.
Social Justice warriors who stir the pot, and try to bring people down publicly are the worst human beings on the planet. Reminds me of the reprehensible woman who tried to bring down Childers Construction. They all are loathsome.
And this is why I will never support FSU, my Alma mater ever again. It's just like any other socialist Uni garbage can.
So, the Judge split the baby.
Sorry, Judge, the young man should have been reinstated in full.