The constitutional right to speak and protest freely is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy, particularly at public universities where diversity of thought, civic engagement, and vigorous debate about ideas and world events are supposed to be encouraged. Unfortunately, in recent months that core principle seems to have been forgotten by the University of Michigan, where campus police have arrested pro-Palestine protesters, forcibly cleared a student encampment using batons and pepper spray, aggressively pursued criminal charges, and have even banned some protesters from the entire campus.

The university’s aggressive, heavy-handed response to protesters is not letting up. That’s why the ACLU of Michigan, along with the Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice, filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Michigan to stop them from arbitrarily banning people from campus as a result of their participation in pro-Palestine protests.

We are representing students, alumni, and local community members who received notices from campus police suddenly banning them from university grounds after they attended a protest. These bans, which the university euphemistically calls “warnings,” immediately prohibited them from stepping foot on the university’s vast campus for an entire year under threat of criminal prosecution for trespassing—all because a police officer accused them of engaging in minor misconduct during the protest, such as using a megaphone or crossing the street. (Two of them were, in fact, banned from all three of the University’s campuses!) They were never given any explanation or evidence supporting their full-campus ban, and they never had a chance to participate in a fair and impartial hearing to contest the ban. Instead, they were immediately banished from their community based on a mere allegation by an individual police officer.

These bans have, understandably, upended the lives of our clients. Beyond blocking their participation in future protests, the bans have also kept them from attending class and on-campus jobs, studying in on-campus libraries, and doing a variety of essential daily errands and activities.

Why This Matters

It’s not hard to understand why the university’s practice of banning people from campus is fraught with problems. Here’s why:

• Chilling effect on protesting: The prospect of effectively being suspended from the university or kept from stepping foot on campus grounds will likely lead to people deciding not to exercise their First Amendment rights on campus. Attendance at protests and other events may dwindle.
• Access to public places: In a free society, the government should not be allowed to simply banish people from spaces that are designed to be open to the public without extremely compelling reasons, which haven’t been provided here.
• Lack of due process: In general, police officers are issuing trespass bans like they are a traffic ticket: based on that individual officer’s mere allegation, and without the need to seek approval from anyone else. But unlike a traffic ticket, a trespass ban kicks that person off campus immediately and only allows them to appeal their ban after they’ve been banned. And here’s the kicker: if the recipient appeals their ban, the person deciding their fate is none other than the issuing officer’s supervisor: the campus police chief.

Essentially, students or community members can be totally banned from all University of Michigan campuses and effectively barred from engaging in lawful activities because of an accusation by a single police officer that an individual engaged in misconduct – even if no evidence is ever put forth to corroborate the allegation, and even if the alleged misconduct is minor and could never be a reasonable basis for banishing someone from what is essentially the central town square for their entire community for a year.

The Case of Jonathan Zou

As indicated by the dire repercussions endured by some of our clients in this case, the practice can have a far-reaching and extremely harmful impact. The hardships experienced by Jonathan Zou are a prime example.

Mr. Zou, a second-year undergraduate student at U of M, was issued a full-campus trespass ban after participating in a pro-Palestine protest in October 2024. He was initially barred from setting foot on the Ann Arbor campus for a full year, except to go to class. However, without explanation, the campus police informed him the next day that they were expanding his ban to all three of the University’s campuses and without the allowance to go to class. His “crime”? Mr. Zou was accused of excessive “noise amplification” by using a megaphone at a protest. Even with the assistance of an attorney, Mr. Zou’s first appeal was rejected, rendering him unable to go to class for weeks as finals season quickly approached. After missing weeks of classes, his second (and final) level of appeal of the trespass warning resulted in his ban being amended to allow him to attend classes. But he was still prohibited from being on any U of M campus for any other reason, including attending protests and organizing meetings, as well as accessing university dining halls, where he had an unlimited meal plan that he relied on for a majority of his meals.

Why This is a Betrayal of the University’s Mission

The unfairness and excessively punitive nature of the university’s response to pro-Palestine protests is abundantly clear. Using overly harsh methods to punish people in such a draconian way denies them their rights and threatens to quell their willingness to protest. It is also an abandonment of the university's mission, which includes being a place where students can develop critical thinking skills by testing their ideas and learning from each other – even when doing so is challenging, uncomfortable, or confrontational.

Ramis J. Wadood is a staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan.

As part of the ACLU of Michigan’s Black History Month celebration, we asked people on our staff to share their thoughts on a particular book, film, television show, or piece of music related to the Black experience in America that they’ve found to be especially moving, important or insightful. The response was spectacular, providing a host of far-flung suggestions for things others might want to read, view, or listen to, and, importantly, why they should do so. Below are some of the highlights that reveal much, both about the subjects being addressed and the values of the tremendously thoughtful people who work here. Enjoy, and learn! 

Television: “Atlanta,” created by Donald Glover 

Authentic representation of Black people by mass media is a rare thing. One brilliant exception is Donald Glover’s television series “Atlanta,” a surreal dark comedy that satirizes hip-hop culture during the 2010s. As someone who experienced that firsthand while in my early 20s, “Atlanta” is like an inside joke between me and my 10 closest friends from high school. 

A show that leans into its absurdity with gleeful abandon (in one episode, an NBA player is involved in an altercation at a nightclub and flees in his luxury invisible car), it’s also one of the most realistic and nuanced portrayals of millennial Black American life. 

My favorite episode, “Juneteenth,” follows Earn (Glover) as he attends his girlfriend’s mother’s party to network with Atlanta’s Black elite. The episode’s satire of the “Black Bourgeoisie” is sharp and detailed. Every shot feels intentional—in one scene, the camera lingers on a bartender standing beneath Norman Rockwell’s painting of Ruby Bridges. Seeing that painting, which has hung in my parents’ home for years, made the moment extremely personal, yet uncanny. From the music choices to the dialogue, to the subtle class and racial tensions, every element feels both hilarious and unsettling. 

Glover said the thesis behind “Atlanta” is this: “How do we make people feel Black?” He achieved it. The show doesn’t just represent—it resonates. Watching the series felt like someone cracked open my world and completely captured my friends, my family, and my community—flaws, humor, and all. You can learn more about where you can watch it now here. 

Daniel Jackson, digital strategist 

Children’s Book: “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats 

As a mother of young kids, much of my reading these days is focused on children’s books. One of  my favorites is “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats. Keats is white, but the Caldecott Medal-winning book, first published in 1962, helped break new ground by being one of the first picture books to feature a Black main character, a little boy named Peter.  

Taking place in a realistic, multicultural urban setting, the book has become a timeless classic. I've read it to all three of my kids (and my youngest would watch the movie version every day if I let him). I think what I love most about this book is the simplicity of the story, and the way it captures the wonder and magic children experience when merely playing in the snow. While I love kids' books that explicitly weave in values that I hold close, this one finds incredible power merely by depicting the delight of a kid being allowed to just be a kid.  We aren't looking to Peter to carry the weight of an important lesson or to teach us anything profound. It is a really beautiful book. 

Jennifer Keller, chief of staff 

Nonfiction Book: “Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation,” by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger 

American popular culture has generally sanitized chattel slavery and also portrayed its victims as hapless, docile imbeciles. The reality was quite the opposite. Anyone interested in reading the true history should consider starting with “Runaway Slaves,” an exhaustively researched book that effectively dispels stubbornly persistent myths about enslaved people who, in fact, showed incredible resilience, ingenuity and determination to be free through frequent rebellions and escapes from captivity.  

The book, published in 2000, is also notable for the revealing insight it provides into the white slaveholders’ brutal reactions, which included the establishment of patrols to hunt down people who escaped, laying the foundation for a racist system of law enforcement that continues to this day. 

For people who don’t enjoy reading, I’d recommend checking out the 2016 miniseries “Roots” (available on various platforms), based on Alex Haley’s groundbreaking 1976 novel. One scene in particular, which can be viewed here, provides what is probably the most accurate depiction available of that horrendous period.  

Mark Fancher, Racial Justice Project staff attorney 

Song: “Thieves in the Night,” by Black Star 

This is my favorite song from 1998’s Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, one of the most impactful hip-hop albums ever made. Imagine Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye transformed into song -- that’s literally the concept. In five short minutes, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and Kweli weave together a mind-boggling array of pressing social topics.

As one critic observed, Bey and Kweli, in a seamless flow, address issues as disparate as “inauthenticity, problems in the military, materialism, the state of the prison system, gun control, the mistreatment of artists in the music business, and of course, the racism that fuels nearly every aspect of life in the United States.” 

It is an entire textbook captured within a single song. As a Muslim, this song is especially meaningful because Bey is one of the first Muslim rappers I’d heard.  

Ramis J. Wadood, staff attorney 

Film: “Sgt. Rutledge” starring Woody Strode 

Watching TV one day as a kid growing up in a rural area that had no Black people, I experienced Woody Strode’s epic performance in 1960’s ”Sgt. Rutledge” as a revelation. Portraying  a cavalryman wrongly accused of raping a young white woman and then killing her and her father, he literally towers above everyone else as he stands in a military courtroom,  ramrod straight and unflinching. He is a monument to positive masculinity and, as the story unfolds, bravery and virtue, crushing  Stepin Fetchit stereotypes into the dust through the sheer power of his screen presence, and creating a whole new Western-film architype in the process: The Black hero. 

Strode, a world-class decathlete while a student at UCLA and one of the first Black men to play in the NFL during the modern era, said this about his role in the film directed by John Ford: 

"It had dignity. John Ford put classic words in my mouth... You never seen a Negro come off a mountain like John Wayne before. I had the greatest Glory Hallelujah ride across the Pecos River that any Black man ever had on the screen. And I did it myself. I carried the whole Black race across that river." 

Curt Guyette, editor at large