Hannah (Elio) Ellutzi, et al. v. The Regents of the University of California, et al.

In May 2024, the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) banned over 110 students and faculty from campus after their arrest at a pro-Palestine protest. The bans went into effect immediately and cut off students and faculty from classes, jobs, and other school resources, such as meal plans, health care, and housing.

The following September, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the Center for Protest Law & Litigation, and civil rights attorney Thomas Seabaugh sued UCSC for issuing unconstitutional, overbroad bans without due process. California Penal Code 626.4 allows schools to withdraw campus access for up to two weeks but requires a hearing unless the university makes a specific finding against specific individuals that their continued presence on campuses poses a substantial threat of significant injury. The university made no such findings here.

On September 26, 2024, coinciding with the first day of classes at UCSC, the Plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent UCSC from continuing its unconstitutional practice of banning students and faculty from campus prior to a hearing or without proving that they pose a real and substantiated threat. The motion aims to ensure UCSC complies with legal and constitutional limits on banning students and faculty from campus.