The University of Washington’s College Republicans say they will sue the UW if administrators don’t drop a requirement that the club pay $17,000 for security costs for a rally this weekend.
The club has invited Patriot Prayer, a conservative Vancouver group, to the UW’s Red Square for a rally on Saturday afternoon. Feb. 1, nine days before the rally, UW officials told the 25-member club they’d need to pay $17,000 for UW police to keep the square secure.
In an email, club president Chevy Swanson called the fee “outrageous,” and a lawyer for the club called the fee unconstitutional. The club plans to file a lawsuit Tuesday if the UW doesn’t rescind the fee, Swanson said.
UW officials did not respond to calls for comment.
Swanson said the club was told in mid-January that it would need to pay for security for the event but was not given a figure until late last week.
“We asked for a reasoning for the cost and they said that deployment specifics cannot be discussed with us, and that we would have to trust them on that number,” Swanson said.
In a letter to UW President Ana Mari Cauce, lawyer William Becker — who is representing the Republican club — said the UW’s actions “violate fundamental principles of free speech, equal protection, and due process guaranteed by the United States Constitution.”
Patriot Prayer invited
Becker is president of Freedom X, a California organization that supports a slate of right-wing causes. In a phone interview, he said that if the UW didn’t drop the request for the security fee, he would file an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Tuesday to get the fees dropped.
Patriot Prayer, a conservative Christian group, came to Seattle for a rally at Westlake Plaza in August, where it clashed with hundreds of counterprotesters. Seattle police deployed blast balls and pepper spray to break up the crowd, and three people were arrested. The group also showed up for the Seattle Women’s March in January.
Last year, right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, a former editor at Breitbart News, spoke at the UW at the invitation of the College Republicans. Violent protests broke out, and his appearance cost the UW and Seattle Police Department more than $75,000, including almost 1,000 hours of overtime that day. The club reimbursed the university $9,120 from funds it had raised for the event.
Swanson said he’s attended Patriot Prayer events before, and that the GOP club invited the group because “they are nonviolent and focus on free-speech issues.” He called the Red Square rally, which starts at 1 p.m., a “free-speech event at its core,” where Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and members of the College Republicans will speak.
