UC Berkeley orders cancellation of Ann Coulter speech

Ann Coulter attends the TIME 100 Gala celebrating TIME'S 100 Most Influential People In The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2012 in New York City. Ann Coulter attends the TIME 100 Gala celebrating TIME'S 100 Most Influential People In The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2012 in New York City. Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close UC Berkeley orders cancellation of Ann Coulter speech 1 / 50 Back to Gallery

UC Berkeley administrators canceled a scheduled speech by right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, saying they can’t protect participants from rioting if it goes ahead — but the students who invited her, and Coulter herself, said Wednesday that she’ll come anyway, and speak on or off campus.

If she does show up next Thursday, “We will continue to do what is necessary to provide safety and security for the campus community and our neighbors,” said Dan Mogulof, a campus spokesman. He would not elaborate.

The standoff began Wednesday after vice chancellors Scott Biddy and Stephen Sutton emailed the student groups co-hosting the event — the Berkeley College Republicans and BridgeUSA, which gets students with political differences to listen to each other — to say the event was off until September at the earliest.

“We have been unable to find a safe and suitable venue for your planned April 27 event featuring Ann Coulter,” the administrators wrote. “In the wake of events surrounding the planned appearance by (right-wing speaker) Milo Yiannopoulos in February, as well as several riots which have occurred in recent weeks in the city of Berkeley, we have increased our scrutiny regarding the time and location of high-profile speakers so that these events can go forward unimpeded.”

Students said the cancellation made them angry because they had cooperated with administrators’ previous insistence that high-profile speakers end their talks by 3 p.m. And while they had negotiated to win an extra half hour, they’d also gotten Coulter to take an earlier flight. Now, they said, they won’t accept the cancellation.

“No matter what, she’s coming to Berkeley — despite UC Berkeley’s attempts to silence and suppress her right to come to campus,” said Naweed Tahmas, 20, of the Berkeley College Republicans. “We are preparing with attorneys on how to proceed.”

Coulter tweeted her reactions Wednesday: “No school accepting public funds can ban free speech.”

And: “Instructing Berkeley student group to spare no expense in renting my speaking venue — part of my legal damages.”

And: “I acceded to Berkeley’s every silly demand (never made of lib speakers). Called their bluff & they canceled anyway.”

Spencer Brown, spokesman for Young America’s Foundation, which sponsors conservative speakers on college campuses and is paying $17,000 of Coulter’s $20,000 speaker’s fee, said the event will go forward — “whether Berkeley likes it or not.”

Asked where the speech would take place, Brown said, “We are pursuing all remedies available.” Campus spaces are free, but all filled up, according to administrators; and off-campus sites would probably charge a fee.

Young America’s Foundation accused UC Berkeley of anti-conservative bias. “This is as clear-cut a case as it gets that public universities are using taxpayer dollars to shut down conservative speech, while allowing liberal speech only,” the group declared.

The accusation comes as state lawmakers debate a Republican-sponsored bill that would ban colleges and universities from taking actions that stifle students’ expression. On Wednesday, the bill, SB472, passed the Senate Education Committee with a 7-0 vote. It heads to a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.

Since President Trump’s inauguration in January, a debate about free speech has emerged at UC Berkeley in a way that hasn’t happened since the campus Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.

Left-leaning student protesters say they have a right to shut down hate speech of the kind they say Yiannopoulos and Coulter engage in that targets individuals or groups of people.

Both specialize in making people squirm with insulting talk. This month, Coulter tweeted: “N Korea will make nuke capable of hitting Seattle! Situation will be dire as soon as they can hit a city worth saving.”

She told conservative talk-show host Tucker Carlson recently that she was puzzled at the U.S. missile retaliation against Syrian President Bashar Assad for his chemical weapons attack on Syrian children and other citizens. She said, “For that region of the world, Assad is one of the better leaders — there’s probably only one or two that are better than he. He’s not even like a Saddam Hussein murderous thug.”

On Feb. 1, as students protested the Yiannopoulos talk, masked agitators caused $100,000 of damage on campus — smashing windows and setting police equipment ablaze — to stop the speaker from delivering an anti-immigration, pro-Trump talk.

Conservative students say the speakers they invite have a right to express themselves without being muzzled by critics.

Pranav Jandhyala, 19, co-founder of the group BridgeUSA, which is co-sponsoring Coulter and has invited liberal and libertarian speakers on other occasions, is also frustrated at administrators’ attempt to cancel the event.

“It seems clear that they’re stalling until next semester, but nothing is going to change between now and next semester,” he said. “My personal opinion is that this is unconstitutional and is a form of (illegal) prior restraint.”

But Mogulof, the campus spokesman, denied accusations that UC Berkeley is infringing on free speech, saying administrators fear the same violent groups would target Coulter’s speech.

He said it’s all about safety.

“The university’s commitment to the safety and security of our students is non-negotiatable,” he said. “We simply can’t have an event at a time when our law enforcement professionals don’t feel capable of providing that.”

Chronicle staff writer Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov