TAMPA, Fla. — An Army veteran has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the University of South Florida after campus police arrested him and banned him from school grounds for displaying an anti-abortion sign during an outdoor campus market.
Tyler Newton, a medically retired disabled veteran residing in Pinellas County, filed the complaint on Oct. 9, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The filing names USF President Moez Limayem, Marshall Student Center Director Matt Marshall, USF Police Chief Chris Daniel, and members of the USF Board of Trustees as defendants in their official capacities.
According to the complaint, the dispute began on the morning of Sept. 23, 2026, during the weekly USF Bull Market held on the Marshall Student Center Plaza. Newton, who is not a student at the university, stood in a tree-lined section of the plaza holding a sign that showed a photograph of a human fetus alongside the text: “What about her body and her rights?” Newton also recorded the scene using a camera mounted on an adjacent tripod…