Alumnus says University trampled on rights

An alumnus has filed a lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court alleging that the University violated his right to free speech by failing to protect his efforts to protest prominent political speakers on campus.

Bob Bloom '51, a "semiretired" New York-area lawyer, claims that he was "humiliated and silenced" by the security details of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice when he tried to demonstrate against their respective 2004 and 2005 visits. He is now seeking an injunction that would force the University to allow protesters to get "within sight and sound" of the targets of their protests.

"Princeton has surrendered its mission of being a free speech university by allowing these fascist thugs to come onto their campus," Bloom said in an interview. "If that's what Princeton is becoming, screw Princeton."

University general counsel Peter McDonough said Bloom's claims are unmerited, though he has not yet seen the text of Bloom's complaint, which was filed Friday. "Mr. Bloom was not treated disrespectfully or inappropriately by University officials, and it is clear that his individual rights were not violated," McDonough said in an email.

"While we certainly would prefer not to be in litigation with campus visitors, particularly alums, sometimes people simply want to be plaintiffs to bring attention to themselves and their causes," McDonough added. "That seems to be the case here."

Bloom's first attempted protest was in February 2004, when then-Secretary of State Powell spoke in Richardson Auditorium. Bloom, who said he believes Powell lied for the Bush administration to garner international support for the war in Iraq, decided to protest by holding up a three-by-five-foot sign that read: "Powell — liar, war criminal, resign."

Bloom said that two Public Safety officers approached him and told him he had to move, and he refused. Later in the day, when he returned to Alexander Hall, a State Department security officer stood in his way and blocked his path to Powell, he said.

Bloom added that he didn't think his protest was at all disruptive. "I was a lonely old man of 76 or 75, alone, silently protesting who I view as a war criminal," he said.

In September 2005, Bloom again staged a protest on campus, this time during a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who kick-started the Wilson School's 75th anniversary celebration. Bloom — who was invited to the ceremony since he is a Wilson School graduate — said he was afraid his protest would not be effective outside Jadwin Gym, where Rice spoke, so he decided to confront her inside the building.

"At the end of her speech, while people were applauding this — in my opinion — war criminal, I went to the front row about 40 feet from her, and I said 'liar, war criminal, resign' twice," he said. "Only once I said that did a thug, a State Department security man, push me out — not physically, but he walked me out."

Bloom said he thinks the University's quelling of his protest attempts stems from a desire to curry favor with prominent campus visitors by shielding them from visible protests.

"I'm nobody. But Secretary of State Rice? Colin Powell? These are powerful people," he said. "You suck up to them."

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University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said the University has to "balance the security needs of the invited guest with those of protesters" and added that the University received no complaints from other protesters at either the Rice or Powell visits. "In both instances, we followed our policy," she said.

History professor and chair of the Rights and Rules Committee Hendrik Hartog said in an interview that Bloom's run-in with Public Safety in 2004 illuminated a number of problems with the University's policy on protests. "[Bloom] did a very useful thing for us, which was to sort of make it clear that the rules about protest were totally incoherent and unresponsive to the particular mandates of the New Jersey Supreme Court," Hartog said.

In response to these concerns, the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) voted in May 2005 to change the section of "Rights, Rules, Responsibilities" dealing with on-campus protests.

The alterations expanded the number of locations on campus where protesting is allowed, also stating that there may be other acceptable areas for protests. Additionally, a prominent new paragraph emphasizes that peaceful public protest is the right of both students and non-students.

The changes also made it no longer mandatory for would-be protestors to seek approval from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, but specified that they still "should" do so.

Bloom supported these alterations but said that none of the changes answered his "nonnegotiable demand": that a provision be inserted to ensure that protesters be "within sight and sound" of their objects of protest.

Hartog said Bloom's demand may be difficult to fulfill consistently. "That's a good principle, [but] it's very hard to achieve," he said. "The way the rules are written as we wrote them; there should be every effort made to make that possible."

Deciding on a site for protests, Hartog added, is a complicated process of bargaining and compromise. "Colin Powell's security detail basically wanted the protesters somewhere in Montgomery County," he said.

Ultimately, Hartog said, University policy provides adequately for protesters' rights. "We wrote a generous and pro-free-speech-oriented interpretation of New Jersey Supreme Court law into these campus regulations," he said.

Hartog also noted that Bloom's demonstration against Rice inside Jadwin Gym was not covered by the University's protest regulations, which only apply to outdoor locations.

Bloom said that protesting indoors was his only choice, however, as the University-approved protest location outside the gym was unacceptable to him. "Those protesters [outside] might as well have been in Australia," he said. "[Rice] was unaware of their presence; she didn't know they were there."