Pro-Palestinian students and alumni filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Michigan on Friday, alleging the school violated their constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and equal protection by silencing them.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, claims the university engaged in a pattern of targeting pro-Palestine protesters with retaliatory disciplinary actions. The suit accuses the university of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire consultants to initiate proceedings against students and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter that has advocated for Palestinian liberation for more than 20 years.
The suit was filed against the U-M Board of Regents, President Santa Ono, and Vice President of Student Life Martino Harmon, as well as third-party consultants Omar Torres of Grand River Strategies and Stephanie Jackson of InCompliance as defendants.
“The egregious Constitutional violations outlined in this suit are merely a fraction of the repression the University of Michigan has subjected student activists like us to because of our assertion that the University should not financially invest in, and materially benefit from, the genocide of the Palestinian people,” Nora Hilgart-Griff, a graduate student at the university’s School of Social Work, said in a statement. “That the University has departed from its longstanding allowance of student protest — even protest that may be critical of University policies or leadership — for this issue alone is evidence of the way the Palestinian people are systematically and intentionally dehumanized by the countries who fund and enable their dispossession and deaths.”
Over the past year, police have clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters, making it difficult for them to raise their voices.
The lawsuit highlights what plaintiffs call a “double standard” in how the university handles protests. Historically, the University of Michigan has celebrated its legacy of activism, from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War. Plaintiffs allege that while other protests have gone unpunished, the university has adopted a markedly different approach toward pro-Palestine activism.
“For the past year the University of Michigan has overreached to specifically target students who advocate for divestment and the human rights of Palestinian people,” said John Philo, executive and legal director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. “The University is breaking from its own long-standing traditions of honoring student protest and is violating the United States Constitution by weaponizing student and student organization disciplinary processes to punish pro-Palestine protesters into silence.”
SAFE, which has existed on campus for 22 years, has also spoken out against the university’s actions.
“As long as the struggle continues in Gaza, it will continue globally, on our campus, and in our streets. Our movement has only grown stronger in the face of repression and targeted attacks,” the organization said in a statement. “In standing up for our collective right to free speech, protest, and due process, we are ensuring that the fight for Palestine will continue until liberation and return.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has also joined the legal fight.
“This lawsuit is aimed at forcing the University of Michigan to live up to their purported commitment to free speech as a ‘bedrock principle of the university,’” CAIR Michigan Staff Attorney Amy V. Doukoure said. “We are asking the court to hold the university accountable for silencing political speech based on its viewpoint.”
The legal team representing the plaintiffs includes John Philo, Liz Jacob, and Tony Paris from the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice; Amy Doukoure from CAIR Michigan; and attorneys from Goodman, Hurwitz & James P.C., the Detroit-Michigan National Lawyers Guild, and the Law Offices of Holland Locklear PLLC.
“The plaintiffs in this case were peacefully protesting just as thousands of students before them have since the 1960s,” said Julie Hurwitz, attorney with the National Lawyers Guild. “Yet, unlike those before them, the plaintiffs here have been systematically targeted and are being punished not for violent acts but for their advocacy for the rights of Palestinian people. The university’s actions represent an unconstitutional assault not just on these students but on democratic principles.”
The plaintiffs hope the lawsuit will compel the university to honor its stated commitment to free speech and ensure that all students, regardless of their political views, can protest without fear of retaliation.
In September, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed criminal charges against nine people involved in a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at the University of Michigan.
