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Former Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini — a Republican who previously made national headlines for wearing blackface in high school — said Monday he has filed a lawsuit against the University of Florida (UF) on behalf of the school’s College Republicans chapter over its disbandment.
On March 14, UF announced that it deactivated the chapter after the Florida Federation of College Republicans (FFCR) reported finding that some of its members had “engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated its rules and values, including a recent antisemitic gesture.” The news came after a screenshot of a photo was shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) showing two people performing what appears to be a Nazi salute in a chatroom on Guilded, a group chat platform for gamers that was shut down in December 2025. The post from Sloan Rachmuth, who describes herself as an investigative journalist, claimed the photo showed one of the group’s members.
That same day, Sabatini — who is now a commissioner in Lake County, just outside of Orlando — announced his plans to sue UF on behalf of the university’s College Republicans and demanded the group’s reinstatement.
“This is completely illegal—I spoke with @UFCR leadership & I will be filing a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit under Section 1983 Monday morning against @UF seeking an injunction,” Sabatini wrote in a post on X.
On March 16, Sabatini sent New Times a copy of the lawsuit he filed on behalf of the chapter against the University President Donald Landry, which claims First Amendment violations.
The suit argues that the university deactivated the chapter, which it calls the largest college Republican club in the United States, “in response to alleged viewpoints expressed by a member of UFCR, and in an effort to silence the club and chill its future speech.” It said the member “expressed a viewpoint off-campus that was alleged by some to be anti-Semitic” and called it the “Contested Expression.” The suit also claims that the university likely disbanded the chapter because it hosted far-right gubernatorial candidate James Fishback on March 11 in an event attended by more than 500 students.
“As a direct and proximate result of the Deactivation, UFCR has been and continues to be deprived of its ability to organize, speak, associate, host events, invite speakers, reserve campus spaces, access University funding and resources, and participate fully in the marketplace of ideas on campus,” the suit reads.
Fishback himself weighed in on the disbandment, calling it a “disgusting attack on the First Amendment” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The UF club has insisted that it’s not affiliated with FFCR and is instead part of the College Republicans of America. The lawsuit claims that FFCR is a “third-party group” with “no authority over or affiliation” with UF’s College Republicans.
“We are proud members of a different organization, @uscollegegop,” the group wrote on X. “We look forward to the University reinstating our club and correcting this statement.”
Steve Orlando, a UF spokesperson, declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the university’s practice of not commenting on active litigation.
Sabatini, who represented Central Florida’s District 32 from 2018 to 2022, has served as a Lake County commissioner since 2024. The right-wing politician, who has openly supported Christian nationalism and the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, has repeatedly made headlines for his controversial stances, including promoting fake claims of electoral fraud in 2020, opposition to vaccination, and climate change denial.
In 2019, Sabatini made headlines after a high school photo surfaced of him and a friend wearing blackface, which he claimed was taken out of context. It was later revealed that he had also been photographed in brownface during his freshman year of college.
The UF College Republicans controversy comes just days after Florida International University (FIU) began investigating a series of racist and antisemitic messages allegedly sent in a group chat that included a former board member of FIU’s College Republicans. The text messages allegedly included participants taking turns using racist and antisemitic slurs and using the N-word hundreds of times. At one point, one chat member allegedly listed dozens of ways of violently killing Black people, including crucifying, dissecting, and beheading them.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.
