Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has told the University of California, Berkeley student groups that she intends to speak on campus Thursday, leaving the full details of her controversial appearance to be decided by university police, demonstrators and counter-protestors.
On the heels of three violent clashes this year between extreme left and right groups, administrators sought at first to cancel, then delay Coulter's appearance.
She responded by posting Thursday's Berkeley weather forecast with the comment: "Nice day for an outdoor speech."
A representative of one of the two campus groups that invited Coulter said she intends to show up late in the afternoon on Sproul Plaza, defying efforts by university police to limit potentially violent demonstrations to earlier in the day and off the main campus. The administration had asked her to postpone her address until May 2, a time when most students would not be attending classes.
Harmeet Dhillon _ a lawyer for the Berkeley College Republicans, which originally was to host Coulter _ noted that Sproul Plaza, in the heart of the campus, is a designated public speech location and permission for an appearance there is not needed.
"I do know that we have neither the desire or the ability to keep people off of Sproul Plaza," UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.
Coulter's appearance is being paid for by the Virginia-based Young America's Foundation, but she was invited to speak on illegal immigration by the nonpartisan group BridgeCal and the Berkeley College Republicans. The Republican students and the foundation filed a federal free speech lawsuit Monday, accusing Berkeley of using security concerns as a guise to censor conservative viewpoints.
In February, a campus event featuring right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was shut down when the venue was swarmed by demonstrators _ including some in masks who tore down barricades and smashed windows.
Two subsequent rallies have been staged in Berkeley by alt-right and conservative groups, each time drawing out anti-fascist protesters as well as white nationalists and resulting in violent clashes, beatings and arrests.
