Editor’s Note: The butterfly effect, a concept created in the 1960s by a meteorologist to explain small changes in weather patterns that can, through a series of dominoes that follow, result in large deadly climate events, has seeped into the larger zeitgeist through Hollywood movies. But the theory’s application isn’t limited to the weather. In this week’s The Rabbit Hole, reporters Peter Beck and Ema Rose Schumer examine how one college essay resulted in angry debates on campus, a failed federal prosecution, an ongoing lawsuit about how far academic freedom can bend, and put two federal judges on opposite sides of what it means to be a ‘threat’ - Seamus
A college essay spurred a U.S. Marshal investigation, a failed federal indictment about a death threat to a judge, and an ongoing lawsuit that tests the limits of academic freedom. It all started, as these things tend to do, with a debate on the legal theory originalism.
In the fall of 2024, a second-year law student, Preston Damsky, submitted a paper, according to court records filed by the University of Florida, advocating for the United States to be a white ethnostate. In addition, he reportedly argued in favor of stripping birthright citizenship, overturning the rest of the Reconstruction-era amendments as unconstitutional, allowing the military to “shoot to kill” “criminal infiltrators” at the Southern Border, among others.
For this essay, the adjunct professor, who also serves as a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, awarded him the book award for best student in the seminar.
The award, given by Judge John L. Badalamenti, stoked backlash on the campus of the University of Florida Levin College of Law and on social media, ultimately giving rise to two federal cases testing the First Amendment’s balance between promoting speech on issues of public concern and curbing rage likely to erupt into violence.
Even before news of the award circulated, many students were already familiar with Damsky for his extreme beliefs. Yet the capstone essay and the judge’s decision to award Damsky led to an uproar that expanded beyond the University of Florida, trickling onto social media platforms and into the wider legal community.
But things really started to come to a head nearly a year later when The New York Times published an article detailing Damsky’s essay and the ensuing backlash on campus. That same day, a prominent human-rights lawyer distilled the article in a post on his public Instagram account, calling out Judge Badalamenti by name. In the comments of the post, the Instagram account @Falasteen8090, later identified as 35-year-old Neda Joudeh, wrote, “I wish someone would in alive him” (SIC).
Judge Badalamenti came across the comment on Instagram and reported it to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Rest of This Story Is Behind a Paywall
Let's explain why. Our Friday morning roundups are always free. However, this story is part of our weekly Sunday Series we call The Rabbit Hole where we choose a single federal court docket, filing, or topic and dive deep into the details. To do the stories in the series properly, we invest significant reporting resources that can only happen with subscriber support.
Upgrade To Read the Rest