AUSTIN, Texas — The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sent a letter to University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell this week claiming his administration may be violating the First Amendment rights of students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests back in April by investigating them. 

What You Need To Know

  • ACLU of Texas attorneys claimed in the letter that UT Austin officials were violating pro-Palestinian student protesters' constitutional rights by asking for written responses to questions about their activities on April 24 and April 29

  • According to the ACLU, the questions the students were expected to answer “presupposes that students receiving these notices violated University policy and ignores that the First Amendment protects peaceful protest”

  • The ACLU attorneys also call the investigations a “fishing expedition” into alleged university violations, which they argue violates students’ constitutional rights against unreasonable searches or seizures

  • “Subjecting students to a disciplinary process for simply participating in peaceful protest chills the First Amendment rights of every person connected to the University and erodes the core tenets of our democracy,” the letter said

The civil rights group claimed in the letter that students who were arrested during the protests on April 24 and April 29 had received notices from the university, which asked them to provide written responses to questions about their activities.

The protests–which featured a heavy police presence including Texas Department of Public Safety troopers–resulted in at least 136 arrests, but not all of those detained were students. 

All the charges against the 57 individuals arrested at the April 24 protest were later dropped. 

According to the ACLU, the questions the students were expected to answer “presupposes that students receiving these notices violated University policy and ignores that the First Amendment protects peaceful protest.”

The letter argues the notices violate the students’ rights to due process and says the university cannot begin investigating specific students without “individualized evidence” for each. 

“Further, to the extent that eliciting written responses is a new or newly modified investigatory process, it also raises concerns that it was designed to target only students involved in pro-Palestine protest activity,” the letter said. 

The ACLU attorneys in the letter also call the investigations a “fishing expedition” into alleged university violations, which they argue violates students’ constitutional rights against unreasonable searches or seizures. 

The letter goes on to argue that “students still cannot be held responsible for the actions of a group simply because they participated in free speech activity.”

“Subjecting students to a disciplinary process for simply participating in peaceful protest chills the First Amendment rights of every person connected to the University and erodes the core tenets of our democracy,” the letter said. 

Annette Rodriguez, an associate professor of history at UT, told Spectrum News back in May that she spoke with student protesters who were worried about facing disciplinary action.

“They’ve been threatened with being taken from campus for doing something that is protected by Texas law and the U.S. Constitution,” she said. 

UT officials have previously argued that the protesters were violating university rules and were given warnings to disperse or face arrest. 

The protests were sparked by a nationwide protest movement on college campuses in response to the Israel-Hamas war. Protesters at UT demanded that the university divest from companies that sell weapons or give money to Israel and asked for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. 

Tensions in the region escalated after the militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostage. Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. More than 13,000 of those deaths were children, according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.