Students For Justice in Palestine chapters all across the country have been targeted for censorship and have had their free speech rights repeatedly violated by other student governments, university administrations, and oppositional student organizations. Unfortunately, Montclair is no exception. The first incident occurred back in late September 2014 when the SGA decided to cut MSJP’s budget and threatened to decharter the newly formed student organization if it did not comply with an order to cease the distribution of a pamphlet critical of Israeli policy towards the Palestinian people. The most recent occurred on Sunday March 1 when the Executive Board of the Montclair Hillel, otherwise known as the Jewish Student Union and also a chartered organization of the SGA, sent out an email to every member student organization and Greek Life Organization simply because it disagreed with the viewpoint which was to be disseminated through one of Montclair Students For Justice in Palestine’s events that took place the next evening on Monday March 2, 2015. In the email, the Hillel Executive Board encouraged other student organizations to somehow prevent this event from taking place. If other organizations had followed this advice, such actions would have constituted a violation of MSJP’s right to free political expression. We are pleased that in both these instances matters have been resolved in SJP’s favor. However, we are deeply concerned with the fact that a culture of censorship has been allowed to grow within the SGA and among its student organizations and that the instigating parties have not been held accountable.

Therefore we call upon the Montclair SGA legislature to:

1) Pass a bill barring the Montclair SGA, from infringing upon the right of its member organizations to free political expression, as it is prohibited from doing by the U.S. Constitution, through any means whatsoever

2) Pass a bill that mandates some degree of punishment for any SGA member or members who attempt to infringe upon (or do actually infringe upon), through any means whatsoever the right, of member organizations to free political expression

3) Pass a bill which recognizes that controversial speech by member student organizations is included under the banner of protected expression, as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution, and therefore barred from investigation by the SGA

4) If such a process does not already exist then we request that a bill be passed creating an impartial process by which one or multiple chartered student organizations may request that formal charges be brought and sanctions levied against another one or multiple chartered student organizations for infringing upon their constitutional rights.