The University of Alabama filed a motion to dismiss in Pointer v. Phelps, the case regarding the suspension of student magazines Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six. Both parties later agreed to pause proceedings in the District Court of Northern Alabama pending the appeal of Judge Edmund LaCour’s decision to deny UA students a preliminary injunction.
“We’re deeply concerned about the decision that we got from the District Court,” said Avatara Smith-Carrington, Assistant Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “These two magazines have been essentially censored.”
Smith-Carrington said that the judge’s decision “flouts several decades of Supreme Court precedent when it comes to student speech” and would silence a student press outlet, posing risks for student media across the country.
In its motion to dismiss, attorneys for the University argued that the plaintiffs did not prove the University discriminated based on the viewpoints expressed in issues of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six. They wrote that the students’ initial complaint to the court “contains no factual allegations” to support a claim of viewpoint discrimination.
Counsel for the University wrote that the decision to suspend Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six was solely motivated by “compliance with federal anti-discrimination law.” They cited a memo issued by Pam Bondi, former U.S. Attorney General, as justification for the suspension.
“The Memo suggests that a program or activity can violate the law even if it is ‘technically open to all,’” they wrote, highlighting the memo’s example of a “BIPOC-only study lounge” as an unlawful practice.
Attorneys for the University students are appealing Judge LaCour’s denial of the preliminary injunction to the 11th Circuit Court.
“Everything at the District level is essentially paused,” Smith-Carrington said, adding that the Legal Defense Fund hoped for a better ruling from the 11th Circuit.“At the end of the day, what’s really important here is the voices of students.”
