Lawyers for the University of Missouri and its president, Mun Choi, are asking the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court's ruling that Choi was wrong to bar Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine from the school's 2024 homecoming parade.
In arguments before a three-judge panel Wednesday, lawyer Christopher Ray argued Choi's actions are governed by a legal doctrine known as "government speech," which says the First Amendment doesn't apply when the government speaks.
Judges asked Ray how they should wrestle with the university's prior stance that all comers were welcome in its homecoming parade, which had also been the venue for a 2015 protest by Black students alleging discrimination.
Council on Islamic-American Relations Deputy Litigation Director Gabeir Abbas said the protection doesn't apply and that Choi's actions are a free speech violation that unfairly singled out only one group.
"It wasn't government speech," Abbas said. "It can't be, because you see, over and over again, examples of the parade having two viewpoints at opposition to each another expressed in the same parade."
There is no timeline for the court's ruling.
Less than an hour after the hearing ended, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway's office announced an investigation into allegations the national Students for Justice in Palestine group was "unknowingly financing Islamic terrorism."
"We saw Attorney General Hanaway at the hearing, I believe, this morning and were wondering why she was there. And when we saw the press release, now we understand," Abbas said.
Abbas said Hanaway may be violating the First Amendment.
"We aim to hold her accountable fully for all the illegal things that she does in retaliating against a student group for their views," he said.
It's the second time this week that Hanaway's office has chosen to investigate a group that has sparred with Choi, after a Columbia bar received similar scrutiny.
An emailed statement from the university said the school is aware of the investigation into the student group, but it did not address questions from KBIA about whether Choi endorsed or instigated either of the two inquiries in any way.
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