4216 South Mooney Boulevard PMB 136 Visalia, California 93277 LAW OFFICES OF MELO AND (559) 732.3000 SARSFIELD LLP (559) 732-3005 Email Web Address: October 3, 2017 Special Litigation Section US. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division 950 Avenue, NW Special Litigation Section Washington, DC. 20530 Re: University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Follow Up-Retaliation Complaint Dear Sir or Madam: The Law Of?ces of Melo and Sars?eld, LLP, represents a student publication known as the Berkeley Patriot. The Berkeley Patriot is composed of students enrolled at the UC Berkeley campus. UC Berkeley is a governmental entity of the State of California. Our clients ?led a complaint with your of?ce on/about September 19, 2017. The ?ling of the complaint was widely known, including, we believe, by the UC Berkeley administration. Roughly two days following the ?ling (mailing) our the complaint with your office, our clients were subjected to what we believe to be retaliation for making the complaint. Speci?cally, the UC Berkeley Chancellor, Carol Christ, indicated by email and to the local Bay Area media that her of?ce was directing an investigation into whether students who had distributed posters and chalked on the topics of interest of a conservative-political nature had committed a ?hate crime.? This occurred on/about Thursday September 21, 2017. Some of those students were af?liated or supporters of the Berkeley Patriot. This statement of the criminal investigation into the ?hate crime? followed immediately after a discussion of our clients? attempt to hold the ?Free Speech Week.? I have included the email and copy of the article from the San Francisco Chronicle in question for your convenience. The message implied in her statements was clear-conservative students will be subjected to a criminal police investigation (and implicitly a possible prosecution) for exercising their First Amendment rights. As a result of the threats by the Chancellor, the Berkeley Patriot cancelled Free Speech Week. The students were unwilling to subject themselves to a pre-textual criminal investigation in order to hold the event. Assuming your of?ce does open an investigation into the actions of UC Berkeley in suppressing freedom of expression, we would respect?ally request that it includes this additional complaint of retaliation. Sincerely, LAW OFFICES OF MELO AND SARSFIELD LLP Myw?fe (Authorized e-signature 10/3/2017) Marguerite Melo, Esq. Page 2 Cal in tough spot over Free Speech Week By Peter Fimrite Updated 8:50 pm, Thursday, September 21, 2017 Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle New UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ says the four-day event is unusual: ?This is unlike any situation the campus has ever faced before and indeed any university has ever faced.? A four-day event featuring far-right speakers planned for UC Berkeley next week is creating an environment unlike ?any university has ever faced,? and the campus is mobilizing hundreds of police of?cers to head off potential trouble, Chancellor Carol Christ told The Chronicle on Thursday. Christ cited factors she said make the speaking engagement extremely unusual besides its four?day length: The fact that media personality Milo Yiannopoulos is promoting the event as an ?occupation? of the campus, and that some of the listed speakers contacted university of?cials and said they weren?t aware they were supposed to appear. In addition, she said, the Berkeley Patriot student group that applied for permission to hold the event is a ?very small, recently created student organization that is the door to a kind of disproportionately large organization? behind the event. That organization is Milo Inc., the Yiannopoulos group that she said was created about the same time as Berkeley Patriot. ?This is unlike any situation the campus has ever faced before and, I dare say, any university has ever faced,? Christ said. think we are living in a new world. It?s a dangerous world in many ways.? Tension over the event ?ared up Thursday after an organization run by one of the expected speakers, David Horowitz, plastered the campus with dozens of posters that accused several students and faculty of being terrorist supporters. The posters included photos of some of the targeted individuals and names, and Christ said she ordered them removed. The campus also opened an investigation into the incident as a possible hate crime, along with other messages found on campus that targeted gay and immigrant students. Christ called the posters ?horrible? and ?chilling.? Horowitz is a liberal-turned-conservative who espouses anti- immigrant, anti?Muslim and antiblack ideology, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate-watch organization. Free Speech Week is ?fundamentally disrupting the academic business of campus? and costing money that could be spent on academics, Christ said. She also questioned whether free speech is the motivation behind the event. ?If you think about free speech and why free speech was important to the students they wanted to be able to stand someplace in a public plaza and argue their point of view and have people hear them,? she said. ?I?m not sure that?s the goal here.? Berkeley, where the Free Speech Movement began half a century ago, cannot deny people the right to speak, no matter how odious the message, she said. But at the same time, the consequences of allowing that speech could be dire, as several right?wing events this summer demonstrated when violent protests broke out. It is a troubling situation, she said, because the law is not clear about what would constitute a legitimate public safety concern that would justify canceling an event. It is also unclear what constitutes an unreasonable expense, she said. As it is, the university expects to spend more than $600,000 on security for the four-day event, which will require the assistance of law enforcement agencies from different campuses and from police all over the Bay Area. One of the problems campus of?cials are having is that the list of Speakers keeps changing, as do the times and locations where they are supposed to talk, Christ said. Among the speakers expected next week are Steve Bannon, President Trump?s eX?adviser, and author Ann Coulter. ?The only thing that isn?t a victory (for the right wing) is if people shrug their shoulders and walk away,? she said, pointing out that the Constitution protects abhorrent or odious speech. believe passionately in free speech. I believe it is our obligation under the Constitution but many of our students are questioning free speech and its limitations.? She said many young people nowadays who were raised not to bully others feel that words cause emotional injury. Dan Mogulof, the UC spokesman, said police perimeters will be set up around some of the speaking events and attendees to those will have to show identi?cation. Christ said the university will reassess the situation after Free Speech Week, including what constitutes a campus organization, whether a yearly budget should be set for speaking engagements and how many successive events like this one should be allowed. ?Our obligation is to allow these events to go on,? especially when they are sponsored by student organizations, she said. But ?it?s a topic that?s ripe for a probing discussion.? Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter: @Q?mrite From: "Carol T. Christ Chancellor" Date: September 21, 2017 at 1:14:06 PM PDT To: calmessages Subject: Chancellor condemns hateful incidents Dear students, staff and faculty, I am deeply distressed to learn of some hateful messaging that has appeared on campus recently that targets specific student populations, groups of faculty and administrators. condemn these cowardly acts in the strongest possible terms. Our police department is investigating whether they constitute hate crimes and we will do all we can to support those affected. Please visit our Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination or UCPD if you have information about recent incidents or would like to make a complaint. I want to make sure everyone is aware of services available on campus if you are in any way affected by these incidents. Students can find resources hei. Faculty and staff can find resources m. I urge you to read and understand our carefully crafted Principles of Community and trust that they will be a valuable guide to how we should treat our fellow community members: - We place honesty and integrity in our teaching, learning, research and administration at the highest level. - We recognize the intrinsic relationship between diversity and excellence in all our endeavors. - We affirm the dignity of all individuals and strive to uphold a just community in which discrimination and hate are not tolerated. We are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and dialogue that elicits the full spectrum of views held by our varied communities. - We respect the differences as well as the commonalities that bring us together and call for civility and respect in our personal interactions. - We believe that active participation and leadership in addressing the most pressing issues facing our local and global communities are central to our educational mission. - We embrace open and equitable access to opportunities for learning and development as our obligation and goal. Berkeley is better than what these incidents reflect. Many things contribute to the fact that we are the nation?s number one public university, and a strong component is the care, respect and esteem which we have for our fellow campus community members. As we move into the events of next week, please join me in upholding these values. Sincerely, Carol Christ, chancellor If you are a manager who supervises UC Berkeley employees without email access, please circulate this information to all. Please do not reply to this message