Jenner & Block filed an amicus brief on behalf of the NAACP and the Ohio State Chapter of the NAACP urging the Ohio Supreme Court to hear Oberlin College’s appeal in Gibson Bros, Inc., et al., v. Oberlin.
Oberlin is seeking to reverse a lower court decision finding the college liable for more than $30 million in damages for allegedly facilitating the distribution of defamatory statements during student protests against a local bakery.
Oberlin students were protesting Gibson’s bakery after a 2016 incident involving an altercation between three Black Oberlin students and an employee of the bakery. The three students were arrested, but not the employee. Oberlin students organized a boycott of Gibson’s bakery to protest, among other things, the use of force against a Black student, the law enforcement response, and other accounts of racial profiling and discrimination involving the bakery. Student activists created fliers expressing outrage over the “assault” and the bakery’s “long account of racial profiling,” and the Student Senate passed a resolution expressing similar sentiments.
Gibson’s sued Oberlin, asserting that the college and its personnel facilitated the distribution of defamatory statements during the protests. The trial court found that, although the students’ chants were constitutionally protected, Oberlin could be liable for supporting the distribution of the allegedly defamatory statements in the flier.
Oberlin has petitioned the Ohio Supreme Court to reverse this ruling and find that those statements fall within the free speech and association protections guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Ohio Constitution.
Jenner & Block’s brief supports Oberlin’s appeal, based on the important constitutional protections that are threatened by the lower court decisions. The brief outlines the historical development of First Amendment principles protecting free speech and political expression, driven by the crucial role that boycott and protest played during the civil rights movement. This history also demonstrates the importance of student organizing, in particular in opposing discriminatory practices or actions taken by private businesses. The brief also notes that civil tort liability has historically been wielded as a weapon by opponents of civil rights to stifle and suppress essential political organizing and alerts the court to the grave implications of this decision.
Partner Jessica Ring Amunson led the team, joined by Partner Ishan K. Bhabha, Associate Deanna Krokos, Senior Paralegal Cheryl Olson, and Manager of Docketing Services Tyler Edwards.
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