Congressional Request for Thousands of Private Records of Pro-Palestinian Students at Columbia University Must Be Denied

Palestine Legal defends the First Amendment rights of student protestors in Mahmoud Khalil's lawsuit against Congress and the Trump Administration

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025, New York, NY – Palestine Legal today announced the filing of a "friend of the court" brief in the lawsuit filed by detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and other Columbia students against the Committee on Education and Workforce and the Trump Administration. The brief argues that the Congressional request for thousands of pages of private student records is a clear attempt to suppress First Amendment-protected speech supporting Palestinian rights, which is neither their role nor within their power.

Tens of thousands of students at Columbia University and across the country have been bravely speaking out against Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, which is well within their First Amendment rights. 

As the brief states, “the Trump Administration and members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce have bluntly and repeatedly expressed their desire to stop speech critical of Israel from taking place on college campuses, stating that students who engage in protests or express support for Palestinian rights on social media should be swiftly punished—and even deported and investigated by the FBI.” 

The House Committee demanded Columbia’s private student records under the pretense that it is concerned about a hostile environment for Jewish students. The Trump Administration has similarly terminated $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University claiming that the school failed to protect students from alleged antisemitic harassment in violation of 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.

Palestine Legal's brief rejects the government’s false premise that speaking out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza is antisemitic and violates federal civil rights law. Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia target the policies of a foreign government — not students’ race, color, or national origin. The student protests fall outside Title VI's reach while lying squarely within the First Amendment’s political speech protections.

Federal courts have found that speech activity criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians is "political speech" and "expressive conduct". The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights laws in schools, has found that speech activity like a film and panel discussion on Palestine, and a talk on divesting from companies complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses, are in fact “robust" expression that regularly takes place on college campuses and does not constitute harassment.

Columbia University complying with Trump Administration demands to turn over students' private records would chill student activism due to tangible threats of government surveillance, retaliation, doxing, arrests, detentions, and other harm. Plaintiff Mahmoud Khalil believes that a doxing campaign led to his unlawful abduction by ICE agents over his public support for Palestinian human rights.

“Congress’s ongoing attempt to force Columbia University to hand over private records of pro-Palestinian students is a prime example of federal government overreach”, said Palestine Legal staff attorney Sabiya Ahamed. “Students deserve to speak out freely on an urgent moral issue, without fearing that members of Congress will use the might of the federal government to punish them for what they say at a campus protest or in an op-ed in their school newspaper.”

“Every time the government abuses its power to exert enormous pressure on universities like Columbia —whether through threats to cut millions in funding, investigations, or requesting private student records — universities intensify their punishment of speech and protests in support of Palestinian rights,” said Palestine Legal senior managing attorney Radhika Sainath.

The lawsuit on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil and other Columbia University students was filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), CAIR’s national office, Jonathan Wallace and the law firm of Dratel & Lewis on March 13th, 2025. 

Read the full Amicus Brief here.

Read the full complaint Khalil v. Congress here.