Guidance on First Amendment Rights of Occupy Wall Street Participants From Rutgers–Newark Law School Clinic

Rutgers

NEWARK, NJ – A legal memorandum prepared by the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers School of Law–Newark to help Occupy Wall Street (OWS) leaders and participants understand their constitutional rights to assembly and expression concludes that much of the OWS conduct falls within the protections of the First Amendment. “More problematic,” the memo concludes, “is establishing that First Amendment protection extends to sleeping and camping activities.” Click here to read the memo.

Written by Professor Frank Askin, Director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic, and three of his students, the memo identifies several U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding the rights of free speech and assembly in parks and other public arenas. States the memo: “The movement’s efforts involving rallies, marches, distribution of literature, displaying signs and posters and engaging in conversations regarding the movement’s platform are well within the protection of the First Amendment.”

As for sleeping and camping, the memo notes: “Recently, courts have assumed that sleeping and camping are symbolic expressions protected by the First Amendment, but reasonable, time, place and manner restrictions have, generally, precluded the protestors from actually sleeping and camping in public fora.” The memo describes the court rulings in two cases involving demonstrators seeking to maintain a 24-hour presence in a public space.

A significant section of the memo is devoted to the various factors that courts may consider when deciding whether to uphold free speech restrictions of privately-owned public spaces (POPS), such as Zuccotti Park in New York City, site of the first OWS activities. The memo advises: “Individuals contemplating the exercise of their right to protest within a privately-owned public space should keep in mind the following: (1) find out the regulations that are applicable to a particular POPS and check to make sure they have been legally authorized; (2) research the relevant legal opinions in the jurisdiction; and (3) investigate whether there are favorable arguments that can be raised in jurisdictions where there are no applicable precedents regarding POPS.”

The memo, titled “The Right to Peaceably Assemble: U.S. Constitutional Law and Occupy Wall Street,” was prepared by the clinic as part of the Protest and Assembly Rights Project, a national consortium of law school clinics formed to address the U.S. response to Occupy Wall Street.

Media Contact: Janet Donohue
973-353-5553
E-mail: jdonohue@andromeda.rutgers.edu

Movie to marshal support for college Israel advocacy

Editor's Note:  No.  This is not "The Onion".  Could this be one of the gems we get from throwing 100 billion dollars towards Israel?  Throw some scratch my way and I'll dress up like Adam Pearlman and say some scary things for Rachel Maddow or Bill O'Reilly to use later.

Jewish Standard
Josh Isackson

“We are in need at Rutgers,” said Raffi Mark, a student and Israel advocate on the New Brunswick campus.

“Crossing the Line: The Intifada Comes to Campus,” a documentary detailing students’ struggles against anti-Semitism, will be screened at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus on Tuesday, Aug. 9. The 39-minute film was produced by Raphael Shore and directed by Wayne Kopping.

The congregation obtained the film with the help of Hasbara Fellowships, an organization that “trains students across the United States in Israel Advocacy,” according to Atara Jacobs, community and public relations coordinator for the organization.

A discussion moderated by Mark, of Wayne, and another Rutgers student, Sam Weiner of Paramus, will be held after the screening.

“When you send kids to college they should know what’s going on, and they should be able to talk about it in an intelligent way,” said Gershon Rosenzweig, chair of the Israel Awareness committee of JCC of Paramus and its past president.

According to the film’s website, campusintifada.com, the documentary “offers a glimpse into the experiences of Jewish college students who are actively involved in the daily struggle of supporting the State of Israel and fighting against biased misinformation both in and out of the classroom.”

The JCCP’s Israel Awareness committee, founded in November, sponsors film screenings, visits of Israeli students to the shul, and discussions, among other cultural events.

Tuesday’s film focuses on the reactions of U.S. college students after Israel’s military movements against Gaza in 2008 and 2009, according to campusintifada.com. It explores Muslim organizations that have ties to American universities. It also highlights pro-Israel student activists and their campus campaigns.

Both Rutgers students plan to draw from their experiences as Israel advocates on campus when they lead the discussion.

Twenty-one-year-old Weiner, a senior, is “heavily involved with the Israel advocacy movement at Rutgers,” he said, and will be vice president of Rutgers Hillel this year. He also participated in Write on for Israel, an advocacy journalism program.

“The war to delegitimize Israel has found a home at Rutgers, and we don’t want this to last for long,” said Weiner. “We’ve had an incredibly successful year at Rutgers dealing with what went on there,” he said.

He refers to such programs as the touring Never Again for Anyone event, sponsored by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and American Muslims for Palestine. The Jan. 29 event at Rutgers, according to Weiner, “linked the actions of the Nazis in Europe to actions taken by Israel in 1948.”

The event featured two Holocaust survivors and two Palestinians. Israel supporters on campus reached out to the greater Jewish community in the area and 300 people turned out to protest it.

The event “crossed over the line into anti-Semitism,” said Mark, 20 years old and a junior at Rutgers. Mark was on the Rutgers Hillel student planning committee for Israel and this year will be the Israel chair of the Rutgers Hillel student board.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the event was “the latest effort by anti-Israel activists to exploit the sacred memory of the Holocaust for the purpose of painting its victim, the Jewish people, as the ‘new’ oppressor in the form of Israel.”

“The line between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is being blurred,” says Hasbara Fellowship’s Jacobs.

The Hasbara program was founded in 2001 conjunction with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its mission, according to its website, hasbarafellowships.org, is “simple: educate, train, and motivate university students to be passionate, dedicated, and effective pro-Israel advocates on their campuses.”
The program also brings students to Israel. According to its website, Hasbara Fellowships has hosted more than 1,800 students from more than 250 college campuses.