Emancipate NC, the ACLU of North Carolina, and Muslim Advocates have filed a lawsuit challenging the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s continued punishment of individuals involved in last spring’s peaceful pro-Palestine encampment. Emancipate NC previously defended several protesters facing misdemeanor charges, arguing First Amendment protections. All charges were either dismissed or deferred.
On April 26, 2024, UNC students and non-students established the encampment. In the early morning of April 30, UNC administrators gave some participants less than 30 minutes to disperse before law enforcement forcibly cleared the site, violently arresting students and non-students. Officers kicked the cane out from under a visibly disabled protester, causing a torn rotator cuff.
Arrested students were immediately suspended from classes and banned from campus without due process. Arrested non-students faced criminal trespass charges and were issued lifetime campus bans—also without due process.
The lawsuit argues these actions violate constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and protection from excessive force.
Jaelyn Miller, Staff Attorney for Emancipate NC, issued the following statement:
“UNC’s actions are part of a larger trend in this country towards fascism and suppression of dissent. Despite Carrboro and Chapel Hill police emphatically rejecting UNC’s request, police departments all over the State, including as far away Boone, eagerly showed up to engage in violent, excessive force against individuals who were peaceful and committing no crime.”