Civil Rights Orgs: Columbia's Pro-Palestinian Encampment was a Lawful Expression of Protest Against Israel’s Genocide

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Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights file Amicus Brief in the lawsuit against Trump Admin defunding $400 million from Columbia

Tuesday May 13, 2025, New York, NY – Civil rights groups Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today announced the filing of a "friend of the court" brief in the lawsuit against the Trump administration's abrupt cancellation of $400 million in critical federal research funding for Columbia University.

The civil rights groups' amicus brief argues that pro-Palestinian encampments and other speech activity critical of Israel's ongoing genocide is protected under the First Amendment and does not violate federal civil rights laws. The brief comes as Columbia University called in the NYPD to arrest over 70 pro-Palestinian activists engaged in a sit-in in the Butler Library last week.

The lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), two national labor organizations for teachers and professors, argues that the Trump administration's efforts to coerce universities into policing free speech and academic freedom by "holding hostage billions of dollars of congressionally authorized federal funding" violates the law. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the restoration of funding and prohibiting further unlawful actions by the Trump administration.

Palestine Legal and CCR's amicus brief is the first and only legal argument in this case that rejects the false premise that protests in support of Palestinian rights are antisemitic and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program receiving federal funding.

The brief states that pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia target the policies of a foreign government — not students’ race, color, or national origin. They fall outside Title VI's reach while lying squarely within the First Amendment’s political speech protections.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act does not and cannot require universities to punish expression critical of Israel’s oppressive treatment of Palestinians. Doing so would not only violate the First Amendment but could lead universities to violate Title VI by discriminating against Palestinians, whom the statute protects.

Moreover, the brief points out that Jewish students at Columbia were a substantial part of organizing and leading the Gaza encampment and other student protests supporting Palestinian rights.

"We hope this brief sets the record straight that both the law and history are on the side of these principled students speaking out against an ongoing genocide," said Palestine Legal Director Dima Khalidi.

“Backed by the U.S., Israel has already killed more than 17,000 children and is starving the rest by blocking all aid to Gaza – 290,000 children are reported to be on the brink of death,” said Maria LaHood, Deputy Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Righteous students are demanding an end to this genocide, and in response, their universities and the authoritarian U.S. government are trying to silence them - they will not be silenced.”   

Key Quotes from the Brief:

  • The takeover of Hamilton Hall in protest of Israel’s genocide did “not create a hostile environment in violation of Title VI any more than the 1968 takeover over of Hamilton Hall in protest of the United States’ war in Vietnam created a hostile environment for American students or on-campus marches in protest of South African apartheid created a hostile environment for white Afrikaners. In each case, the underlying speech acts amounted to political criticism of a nation’s policies and were not targeted at members of a protected class.”

  • “A university cannot constitutionally be required to respond to student protest critical of Israel with such severe sanctions in order to satisfy Title VI. Doing so would force schools to target speech and could also put schools at risk of violating Title VI with regard to Palestinian students.”

  • “To express support for Palestinian human rights is not antisemitic; it is to engage in political speech on one of the key social justice issues of the day. Students who participate in such protests follow in the footsteps of college students who are now lauded for protesting war and injustice in decades past.”

Background:

In April 2024, Palestine Legal filed a Title VI complaint against Columbia University with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), demanding an investigation into the schools discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies, including by inviting NYPD officers in riot gear — for the first time in decades — to arrest over a hundred students protesting Israel’s genocide. In March 2024, Palestine Legal, together with NYCLU also sued Columbia University over its suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace chapters. 

Read the full Amicus Brief here.

Read the full complaint AAUP v. DOJ here.