EAST LANSING, Mich. — A federal judge must decide in the coming weeks whether to order Michigan State University to allow campus space to be rented for white nationalist Richard Spencer to give a speech this month.
A lawsuit filed Sunday night against MSU in federal court in western Michigan seeks a preliminary injunction forcing the school to let a Spencer supporter rent a room or hall.
The East Lansing school has said a decision to deny a request for space was made out of “significant concerns about public safety.” It cited the violence in August in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The suit says Spencer doesn’t advocate violence and that MSU’s decision is based on the chance of violence by his opponents. It says that amounts to “a heckler’s veto” of free-speech rights.
