UCSC Palestine Protester Seized Phone Lawsuit
Pro Palestine protests on the UC Santa Cruz campus in 2024 left some students banned and others arrested, and for one protester, her phone seized by campus police.
Former UCSC student Lila Irshad's phone was seized on a search warrant during a routine fire drill on campus, only 15 days after she filed a lawsuit against the campus police over their handling of the protest. On Wednesday, a judge ruled in favor of significant reduction of the search window on that phone, from 10 years down to 6 months after her side argued that the campus police retaliated against her by confiscating her phone.
Representatives from the ACLU say they know she was targeted because the search warrant showed a picture of Irshad giving an interview about her lawsuit against the school, calling it an overreach of the school retaliating at students for exercising their first amendment rights.
The university has responded saying in part "The court recognized that the warrant was valid and supported by probable cause, and that there was no evidence it was retaliatory. UC Santa Cruz appreciates the court's careful deliberation in this decision."
