Round 1

A UC Berkeley Republican group that sued the university over restrictions on a planned speech in April by conservative commentator Ann Coulter has failed — at least for now — to point to any facts showing discrimination by campus officials, a federal judge said Friday. While U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney said she planned to dismiss the suit by the Berkeley College Republicans against the university and its leaders, she said they could refile the suit within 30 days if they presented plausible assertions that UC officials were ideologically biased or imposed unnecessary restrictions on Coulter and like-minded speakers. A lawyer for the group said the task won’t be difficult...

Bryan Heckenlively, a lawyer for the university, said the policy provides neutral standards for reserving indoor forums for speakers, based on reasonable forecasts of the need for security.

Chesney said the claims of bias would have to address the fact that UC Berkeley offered the controversial Yiannopoulos a “great venue and time” for a speech that was scheduled in February but never took place because of violent clashes.

Full story at http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Judge-unpersuaded-by-claims-of-UC-bias-over-12241916.php