A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Last edited Sat Jun 21, 2025, 09:57 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: New York Times

A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.

The University of Florida student won an academic honor after he argued in a paper that the Constitution applies only to white people. From there, the situation spiraled.


The granting of an academic award to a white supremacist who wrote a law school paper promoting racist views set off months of turmoil on the University of Florida campus. Jacob Langston for The New York Times

By Richard Fausset
Reporting from Gainesville, Fla.
June 21, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on "originalism," the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted.

In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase "We the People," in the Constitution's preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against "criminal infiltrators at the border." ... Turning over the country to "a nonwhite majority," Mr. Damsky wrote, would constitute a "terrible crime." White people, he warned, "cannot be expected to meekly swallow this demographic assault on their sovereignty."

At the end of the semester, Mr. Damsky, 29, was given the "book award," which designated him as the best student in the class. According to the syllabus, the capstone counted the most toward final grades.

The Trump-nominated judge who taught the class, John L. Badalamenti, declined to comment for this article, and does not appear to have publicly discussed why he chose Mr. Damsky for the award. ... That left some students and faculty members at the law school, considered Florida's most prestigious, to wonder, and to worry: What merit could the judge have seen in it?

{snip}

Richard Fausset, based in Atlanta, writes about the American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal justice.

https://www.nytimes.com/by/richard-fausset

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/white-supremacist-university-of-florida-paper.html

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I don't know if this constitutes LBN. The incident happened last fall. The reporting on the repercussions seems to be the new part. I'll move this if the forum hosts say so.

Take it away, forum hosts.

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Added: If this thread does get disappered, Demovictory9 posted the story over in GD too:

A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220418335

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Reposted by Mike Masnick
https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social

>>>>>>
jamelle

‪@jamellebouie.net‬
a sitting federal judge — appointed by trump of course — awarded a student for a paper that basically says dred scott was right and should have gone further

‪Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof‬
‪@evanbernick.bsky.social‬
· 3h
Words fail me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/white-supremacist-university-of-florida-paper.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Qk8.Zdse.9h3KhkfNOqv2&smid=url-share

A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.
www.nytimes.com
June 21, 2025 at 7:00 AM
>>>>>>

a sitting federal judge — appointed by trump of course — awarded a student for a paper that basically says dred scott was right and should have gone further

— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) 2025-06-21T11:00:01.640Z

[Scrivener7]

1. My niece is the only good thing that ever came out of Florida.

[Paladin]

2. Not terribly surprising, if you have any experience with legal education.

When you enter law school, you basically walk away from a lot of decent aspects of your life. That said, it's pretty obvious this student was plunging into the toilet, a lot deeper than most---and he damn sure didn't deserve some "book award."

Judge Badalamenti will probably get Damsky a position with the trump regime---he'll be a perfect fit...

[oasis]

3. I expect he'll receive an "atta boy" from V.P.

Jerk D. Vance.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. UF law student trespassed from campus after racist, antisemitic social media posts

NEWS | CAMPUS
UF law student trespassed from campus after racist, antisemitic social media posts

Damsky called for the elimination of Jewish people “by any means necessary”

By Grace McClung
April 21, 2025 | 6:00am EDT

A UF law student who previously won a top academic honor for an essay promoting white supremacy was banned from campus this month after publicly indicating support for a Jewish genocide.

Preston Terry Damsky, a 29-year-old student at UF’s Levin College of Law, was issued a trespass order on April 3, making it a second-degree misdemeanor for him to set foot on university property for three years. The order came weeks after Damsky began posting racist and antisemitic content on social media, including a message calling for the elimination of Jews “by any means necessary.” ... UF, home to the largest Jewish student population of any public university in the U.S., has since increased security around the law school with added police patrols, stricter event protocols and restricted building access.

The trespass order followed months of internal concern within the law school over Damsky’s rhetoric, which sharply escalated in late March over his social media accounts. From February to April, Damsky made dozens of X posts, where he described Jewish people as “parasitizing the West,” labeling immigrants as “invaders” and advocating for a white ethnostate.

Details about Damsky’s conduct and the university’s internal response come from a review of his social media accounts and faculty emails, as well as interviews with seven faculty and students, some of whom spoke under conditions of anonymity because they were concerned about their job security and personal safety.

{snip}

[eppur_se_muova]

8. "The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine" ...

Thanks to the negative publicity, this guy is going to drag his reputation behind him for the rest of his life. Yeah, I know, he'll get a job at the Heritage Institute or some such, but he'll be a pariah outside of RWNJ world.

[Ocelot II]

5. Why is he attending a law school named for a Jewish guy, Frederic C. Levin?

Levin was a successful, somewhat controversial plaintiff's lawyer who successfully litigated a major tobacco case and other product liability lawsuits. He was also recognized for his support of the African American community by being named a chief of the country of Ghana, and receiving a citation from the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Levin

So Nazi-adjacent Mr. Damsky attends a law school named after a civil-rights-supporting, corporation-suing, Jewish lawyer?

[paleotn]

11. I'm sure the irony is lost on the jackass.

[bromeando]

6. Whities

The framers didn't say "We the White People."

[niyad]

7. And I am guessing he means white males.

[drmeow]

9. Let's see

"The Trump-nominated judge who taught the class, John L. Badalamenti, declined to comment for this article, and does not appear to have publicly discussed why he chose Mr. Damsky for the award. ... That left some students and faculty members at the law school, considered Florida's most prestigious, to wonder, and to worry: What merit could the judge have seen in it? :

The school hired a Trump-nominated to teach a class on originalism and now wonders why that Judge gave a racist a$$hole an award? Really? I suspect it may be more a case that it left some students and faculty members thinking "told you so!"

[paleotn]

10. Badalamenti? Sorry, judge, but old time racists in the south don't consider YOU fully white.

[Omaha Steve]

12. AFTER a review by forum hosts LOCKING

Analysis of an event from a month ago.

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