A University of Florida Law student, who was expelled from campus in the spring after a controversial X post regarding Jewish people, will be allowed to return to campus next week, a Florida federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Preston Damsky, a 2L at UF Levin College of Law, who was first suspended and eventually expelled primarily due to a March 21 post on X saying, “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary.” Damsky filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Sept. 14, claiming that Chris Summerlin, in his official capacity as UF Law dean of students, had violated his First Amendment rights by expelling him. The judge said he granted the preliminary injunction “Because the First Amendment protects ‘even ideas that the overwhelming majority of people might find distasteful or discomforting,’...and because the University has not shown that Damsky’s speech constituted a true threat or was otherwise proscribable,” according to the order. To be considered a “true threat,” a communication must be a “serious expression” conveying that a speaker means to “commit an act of unlawful violence,” Winsor wrote. “Expressions consistent with discrimination or hatred are still generally protected.” Damsky’s lawyer, Anthony F. Sabatini of Sabatini Law Firm, told Law.com Tuesday that “it was the right decision and we are pleased the First Amendment won.” Damsky plans to return to campus on Monday, Sabatini said, adding that while his client hasn’t been a formal student during the fall semester, he has been monitoring coursework online and might be able to be tested on the material to salvage this semester. Damsky is in the top 20% of students with his grades, Sabatini added. Damsky’s full post on X read: “My position on Jews is simple: whatever Harvard professor Noel Ignatiev meant by his call to ‘abolish the White race by any means necessary’ is what I think must be done with Jews,” which Damsky later defended by saying he knew “Ignatiev was not calling for violence,” according to the order. Read in context, Damsky’s statements “do not convey a real possibility that violence will follow,” Winsor wrote. “Some may assume that anyone uttering such commentary is more likely to act violently than someone who does not....But that is not the test. The test is whether Damsky’s posts constituted a ‘serious expression’ that he meant ‘to commit an act of unlawful violence.’” No one perceived what Damsky said as a threat, but it was treated as a threat, Sabatini said. After suspending Damsky, the school “increased campus security, began locking doors previously kept unlocked, and provided a police presence at a Jewish Law Students Association event,” according to the order. The complaint contains one count of violation of First Amendment rights as applied under the Fourteenth Amendment and sought preliminary injunction directing Summerlin to restore Damsky to “normal standing” at the university, according to court records. Prior to his X post, Damsky had written two papers in the fall of 2024 arguing that “the United States was founded as a race-based nation state, and that foundational structuralist principles and certain formerly long-standing laws...legally necessitated its preservation as such," according to the complaint. Subsequently, Damsky received the “book award” (best grade in the class) for a second paper titled, “Advanced Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism and its Foes,” for Judge John Badalamenti’s class, which led to students complaining about Damsky’s exercising his First Amendment rights and academic freedom. Even though Badalamenti “made it clear that he disagreed with Plaintiff’s views, at no point did he say Plaintiff had intended to or did in fact threaten, intimidate, coerce, harass, disrupt the normal operations of the University, or incite others to do so," according to the complaint. In February, UF Interim Law Dean Merritt McAlister informed the student body that Damsky “would not be punished for his papers as they were protected under the First Amendment.” In April, Summerlin placed Damsky on interim suspension claiming he was “allegedly involved in behavior that created a material and substantial disruption to the academic operation of the UF College of Law.” At the end of May, Damsky was charged with disruptive conduct and harassment and in August, Summerlin notified him that he would be expelled from UF. Damsky appealed the expulsion on Sept. 4. Following Winsor’s ruling, UF Hillel posted to Instagram that its “deeply concerned” about the ruling, saying it “disregards violent threats made toward the Jewish community.” The university “must be a safe space where Jewish students, and all students, can live and learn free from threats of hateful and antisemitic violence,” the post continued, adding that UF Hillel “hopes the University of Florida administration will take all necessary legal steps to protect the campus community from those who would threaten to harm it.” In an email sent to UF Law students Monday, McAlister told students that UF Law will "fully comply with the court's decision," according to the email provided to Law.com. "As an institution dedicated to the rule of law, we respect judicial rulings and decisions as fundamental to the orderly administration of justice. Even when we disagree with those results, we do so professionally and civilly," McAlister wrote. "[W]e must treat him and others with the same respect owed to every member of our community." A UF spokesperson said that the school “does not comment on ongoing litigation.” Summerlin’s lawyers, H. Christopher Bartolomucci, partner at Schaerr Jaffe, and co-counsel Brande S. Smith, University of Florida Office of the General Counsel, did not reply to requests for comment. A Rule 26(f) conference is scheduled for Dec. 10. Vivienne Serret contributed to this report.