DeSantis fumbles question on pro-Palestinian group ban

The same conservative movement that claims to support free speech absolutism is backing blatant censorship. 

Over the weekend, GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and fellow candidate Ron DeSantis doubled down on their calls to punish pro-Palestinian protesters in the United States as the Israel-Hamas war rages on.

For some background, read my post from earlier this month about Trump, DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and other Republicans who’ve called for students and other foreign nationals protesting Israel to be deported, or to essentially blacklist U.S. students if they demonstrate against the Israeli government. Some conservatives have issued blanket statements categorizing all such protests as antisemitic — even terroristic. This, despite the fact that Jewish-led organizations have held demonstrations in support of Palestinians and that many Israeli people have criticized their government’s response to the Hamas attacks.

Last week, Trump doubled down on his call to ban or deport people who “want to abolish Israel” or are “Hamas sympathizers” (to be clear, one can support the Palestinian people without supporting Hamas). And Scott followed up on his push to deport foreign students protesting against Israel.

DeSantis took responsibility last week for imposing a ban on a pro-Palestinian student group at Florida state colleges. The Florida governor’s ban earned condemnation from fellow GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who called it “unconstitutional,” labeled it “utter hypocrisy” and said it amounted to “cancel culture.” 

DeSantis struggled to justify that ban during an interview Sunday with NBC’s “Meet The Press,” claiming it “is not cancel culture.” He tried to refute Ramaswamy on Sunday, alleging the student group has provided “material support” to Hamas. But he provided no evidence of the claim when asked for it. 

My colleague Jordan Rubin published a great breakdown for Deadline: Legal Blog on the legal hurdles to such a policy — the First Amendment being a major hurdle for Florida officials in this battle. To that point, there’s already a movement underway by some legal scholars to defend students who are unfairly punished for showing solidarity with Palestinian people.

It looks like we can add student protest crackdowns to the long list of DeSantis priorities poised to backfire on him.