The trial of 10 Muslim students who protested and shouted down a February 2010 speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at U.C. Irvine began this week, in a case that has generated impassioned debate about free speech and evolved into a broader legal tussle over whose rights were violated.
The students, who interrupted Oren’s speech on U.S.-Israeli relations, are facing misdemeanor charges of conspiring to disturb a meeting and disturbing a meeting. Opening statements were scheduled for Sept. 7.
Students claim they had a right to protest. But Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas contends that right ended when it infringed on the wishes of those who had come to hear Oren.
The students, many of whom have graduated, say they are being singled out because they are Muslim and that similar protests at other colleges didn’t elicit criminal charges. Eleven were arrested, but charges against one student were dropped.
“This is selective punishment,” said Kifah Shah, a spokeswoman for the defendants. “At this point, it is not just about these 10 students anymore. It is about every single one of us and about whether our right to freedom of speech is going to be upheld.”
That isn’t how everyone sees it. Michael Shapiro, a law professor at the University of Southern California, said the students don’t have a constitutional right to shout down a speaker.
“It is just maddening and outrageous that they think they have a free speech right to shut everybody else up,” Shapiro said. “That’s not the way the First Amendment works.”
Prosecutors have accused members of the Muslim Student Union at U.C. Irvine of plotting to disrupt the speech six days before the talk, titled “U.S. Israel Relations from a Political and Personal Perspective.” Several hundred people attended the event.
The trial is expected to last several weeks. If convicted, the students could face sentences ranging from probation with community service and fines to up to a year in jail. — ap