The University of Florida’s chapter of College Republicans was disbanded over the weekend because its members made Nazi salutes and otherwise engaged in antisemitic activity.

The group filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging violations of its First Amendment rights.

“The University of Florida punitively deactivated and shut down the UFCR, in response to alleged viewpoints expressed by a member of UFCR, and in an effort to silence the club and chill its future speech,” the lawsuit says.

The president of the national College Republicans umbrella organization supports the lawsuit, saying the students have the “right to free speech.”

This is not the first time right-wing Republican university groups have found themselves at odds with the Jewish communities in their colleges. Florida International University’s GOP chapter ignited a firestorm when leaked chats exposed jokes using slurs like “kike,” saying they would not marry Jewish women, renaming the chat for an imagined Nazi heaven and discussions of carrying out a Black Holocaust similar to the Jewish one. Similar antisemitic chats from chapters of Young Republicans in several states, including New York, were also leaked.

The University of Florida defended its decision to dismantle the group by saying that members of the College Republicans “engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated its rules and values, including a recent antisemitic gesture.” Jewish activists posted photos that showed members making Nazi salutes, posing with well-known antisemites Nick Fuentes and Myron Gaines, and leaks of them saying that Hitler “didn’t do enough.”

“The University of Florida has emphatically supported its Jewish community and remains committed to preventing and addressing antisemitism and other forms of discrimination and harassment that are threatening and disruptive to our students and to the teaching, research and expressive activities of the campus community,” the university said in a statement.

UF’s College Republicans’ decision to host Jamie Fishback, a GOP gubernatorial candidate who has waded into the morass of antisemitic rhetoric, has also ignited a backlash. The College Republicans at UF said that they were being punished for this as well.

“48 hours after we hosted James Fishback (@j_fishback) at the largest Candidate event at UF in nearly 10 years, @UF terminated our organization,” they posted on X. Their lawsuit makes the same claim: “UF likely further deactivated Plaintiff because UFCR hosted republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, a critic of Israel, at a March 11, 2026, event attended by 500 students.”

Fishback blasted the university’s decision.

“It is disgraceful for Florida’s taxpayer-funded universities to punish student groups for their protected speech,” he wrote. “In 2023, it was Students for Justice in Palestine. Today, it’s College Republicans.”

“As Governor, I will defend the First Amendment rights of all citizens,” he concluded.