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3w ago

University of Florida Suspends Law Student After White Supremacist Paper Wins Book Award

Jewish and Black student groups demand policy changes after the law school initially defended the award under an institutional neutrality policy.

The University of Florida’s Levin College of Law in Gainesville, Fla., on May 29, 2025. After Preston Damsky, a law student, posted on X that Jews must be “abolished by any means necessary,” the university suspended him, barred him from campus and stepped up police patrols around the law school. (Jacob M. Langston/The New York Times)
The University of Florida Levin College of Law. (Screenshot)

Overview

  • Preston Damsky was suspended and issued a three-year trespass order after posting antisemitic and white supremacist messages on social media.
  • Damsky received the law school’s automatic “book award” for a paper arguing that the Constitution applies only to white people and stripping non-white citizens of voting rights.
  • Interim dean Merritt McAlister initially defended the award on grounds of institutional neutrality, citing a policy against viewpoint discrimination.
  • University of Florida Hillel condemned the rhetoric, praised the suspension, and called for a review of the automatic award policy to prevent apparent endorsements of hate speech.
  • The case has heightened concerns among Jewish and Black students at UF, which enrolls 6,500 Jewish undergraduates, and comes as federal scrutiny of campus antisemitism intensifies.