ACLU of Indiana files lawsuit against IU on behalf of banned protesters
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit Friday morning against Indiana University on behalf of three protesters who were banned for one year for participating in a pro-Palestine protest in Dunn Meadow, located on the IU-Bloomington campus.
The lawsuit is not challenging the legality of the arrests, or the force used during the arrest. It’s focusing on how the university is allegedly infringing on the first amendment rights of protestors.
More than 56 people were arrested last week after refusing to remove their encampment structures during a protest in support of Palestine.
“It’s frustrating, it’s infuriating, and it is painful to me as an advocate,” said Madeleine Meldrum.
Meldrum is a grad student at IU and was one of the people arrested.
Meldrum has been banned from the university for 1 year. Current IU professor Dr. Ben Robinson also received a 1 year ban. He joined Meldrum as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“In this moment, the student and faculty and my own voice has been throttled,” said Robinson.
The ACLU says that Dunn Meadow has been a designated space for first amendment activities since 1969 and that the campus bans for Meldrum, Robinson and others is unconstitutional because it prevents the people who are banned from expressing their first amendment rights.
“I do feel a responsibility to human kind, quite frankly, to speak out against the genocide in Gaza,” said Meldrum.
Both Meldrum and Robinson are appealing their campus bans and have received a temporary stay allowing them on campus, but the ban is still hanging over their heads. The lawsuit is working to get rid of them all together.
“I feel like it is really telling that the university is so determined to prevent us from speaking our minds and exercising our first amendment rights that they would go so far as to ban their own students and teachers from their own campus where we can no-longer work or study just to keep us away from our ability to engage in protest,” said Meldrum.
The lawsuit currently only has three plaintiffs who are banned from campus, but that number could grow.
“Certainly it’s possible that we’ll be adding more persons. We are hoping that when IU gets this that they will recognize that this seems to be an obvious problem and we’ll work to remedy it for everyone,” said ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk.
A spokesman told I-Team 8’s Kody Fisher the university does not comment on pending litigation.
The complaint can be found here.