Tell-It Report: Florida Student Wins Award for a Paper Arguing That the Constitution Is for White People

The 29-year-old law school student also argued that nonwhites should have their voting rights stripped away and be given 10 years to leave the United States.

(Envato/ContrabandCamp)

In Gullah Geechee communities, a "tell-it" was a designated lookout, community warning system and the most trusted source for news and information. The Tell-It Report is ContrabandCamp’s weekly roundup of the Black stories that deserve more attention — from politics to entertainment.

A University of Florida student and white supremacist was awarded for writing a racist paper arguing that the Constitution and its privileges are solely for white people.

A federal judge said the EPA tried to “thumb its nose at Congress” after attempting to block grants meant to address environmental injustice in disproportionately affected areas.

And President Donald Trump has quietly removed the Martin Luther King Jr. bust from the Oval Office.

Read the full stories below:

A University of Florida student wins an academic honor for his paper arguing that the Constitution is for white people

A white nationalist student at the University of Florida won an award for a paper that argued the U.S. Constitution applies exclusively to white people. And now he faces expulsion for sharing racist and antisemitic posts on X.

According to The New York Times, Preston Damsky, a second-year law school student, wrote the paper for a class — taught by Trump-nominated judge John L. Badalamenti — that centered on “originalism.” Many conservatives use the theory to interpret the Constitution based on the meaning at the time it was adopted.

Damsky, 29, argued that “We the people” refers only to white people. He also argued against voting rights protections and for shoot-to-kill orders targeting immigrants crossing the border. He wrote that white people “cannot be expected to meekly swallow this demographic assault on their sovereignty.”

The paper earned Damsky — who told the Times that calling him a Nazi wouldn’t be “manifestly wrong” — the book award, which goes to the best student in the class. A separate paper he wrote for another class last fall argued that nonwhite people’s voting rights should be taken away, and they should be given 10 years to move to another country.

Some of the law school’s student body and faculty publicly challenged the award. The Times reports that the interim dean, Merritt McAlister, argued that Damsky has free speech protection and that professors must avoid “viewpoint discrimination.”

In March, Damsky was suspended and barred from campus after posting racist and hateful language on X, including that Jews should be “abolished by any means necessary.” The university also increased its police presence at the law school after students began to fear for their safety.

Damsky, who faces expulsion, told the Times he plans to fight back.

“You know,” he said, “I’m not, like, a psychopathic ax murderer.”

McAlister told The Alligator, a student-run newspaper, that the law school’s reputation was a “foremost concern.”

“The college isn't going to express a viewpoint on any particular student speech,” she said. “Our job as a community is to have dialogue and discussion and debate on these issues and let the marketplace of ideas drown out a particularly odious idea.”

Carliss Chatman, a visiting law professor who is Black, told the Times that she received complaints about Damsky from Black and Jewish students. She also found it interesting that the original title of her class, “Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality,” was changed to “Entrepreneurship” after DEI crackdowns began earlier this year.

“I just find it fascinating that this student can write an article, a series of articles that are essentially manifestos, and that’s free speech, but my class can’t be called ‘Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality,’” she said.

Judge rules that ending EPA grants was unlawful

A federal judge ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency’s termination of $600 million in environmental justice grants was unlawful on Tuesday, Politico reports. The attempted block was a dual attack by the Trump administration to end programs that address climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Maryland Judge Adam Abelson wrote: “EPA contends that it has authority to thumb its nose at Congress and refuse to comply with its directives. That constitutes a clear example of an agency acting ‘in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right,’ and thereby violating the APA.”

The grants, which were announced in late 2023, are a part of the Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, which the Biden administration created to address the disproportionate effects of climate change on low-income areas and communities of color.

The attempted block is a part of President Donald Trump’s larger efforts to dismantle legislation aimed at addressing climate change put in place by the Biden and Obama administrations. He’s called the scientifically proven fact that the planet’s temperature is reaching dangerous levels a “hoax.”

The EPA told the outlet that it's reviewing the decision.

Ruth Ann Norton, president and CEO of Green and Healthy Homes, told the Baltimore Banner that this is an important win for communities disproportionately impacted by climate change.

“The projects funded by this program will be transformative and create tangible, long-lasting positive change for years to come.”

Trump removes MLK bust from the Oval Office

The bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr. that once sat in the Oval Office has been replaced with one of former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, USA Today confirmed via a White House official.

The bust, which was first placed in the Oval Office by former President Barack Obama and remained there during Trump’s first term, now sits in Trump’s private dining room, the outlet reports.

Trump fulfilled a campaign promise to return the Churchill bust to “the place it was prominently displayed during his first term,” according to a January statement by America’s National Churchill Museum.

The bust of King, which was cast by artist Charles Alston two years after his assassination in 1970, has been in the White House on loan from the Smithsonian since 2000. Under former President Bill Clinton, it sat in the White House library.

In 2009, Obama moved the Churchill bust to the Treaty Room and put the King bust in the Oval Office.

ICYMI

Adriana Smith, the Atlanta woman who was declared brain dead in February while nine weeks pregnant, will be laid to rest on Saturday. Her baby was born prematurely through an emergency Cesarean section on June 13.

Nas’ multimedia company Mass Appeal settles racism lawsuit brought on by white former employee.

Tyler Perry has been accused of sexual harassment by “The Oval” actor Derek Dixon, who filed a lawsuit seeking $260 million.

The NAACP broke its annual tradition of inviting sitting U.S. presidents to its convention, making Donald Trump the first president in 116 years to not get an invite.

Esaw Snipes-Garner, the widow of Eric Garner and an activist who was vocal about the impact police violence has on families, died on June 16 at 58 due to health complications.

The Ohio cop who fatally shot 18-year-old Ryan Hinton will not be charged in his death.