The Trump administration filed federal court papers backing a Jewish professor who claimed she was subjected to a hostile work environment fueled by antisemitic, Israel-bashing protests at CUNY’s Hunter College.
CUNY-Hunter filed a motion to dismiss the civil rights lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court by Leah Garrett, chair of the Jewish Studies Center, saying the vitriol was protected by free speech under the First Amendment.
But the US Department of Justice headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi intervened in the case Monday, filing a “statement of interest” stressing the importance of abiding by the federal civil rights law that bars discrimination and subjecting employees and students in educational institutions to a hostile workplace.
“CUNY Hunter may not simply rely on the First Amendment to avoid any scrutiny of whether it is liable under Title VI (Civil Rights law] for its failure to prevent disruptions that Dr. Garrett contends contributed to a hostile work environment,” the 26-page brief filed by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.
“The First Amendment does not prevent CUNY Hunter from regulating material campus disruptions that may contribute to a hostile work environment under Title VI [of the civil rights law].”
In her suit filed last December, Garrett ripped the public university’s leaders for turning a blind eye to antisemitic demonstrations across its Upper East Side campus in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel. Garrett claimed the school allowed students to brandish posters with blood dripping from a Star of David and demanding Zionists be expelled.
She also begged officials to cover up swastikas drawn on Israeli hostage posters around campus, claiming their hands were tied over bureaucratic and legal reasons, according to the suit.
The Lawfare Project, the Jewish legal civil rights group representing Garrett along with the private law firm Alston & Bird, applauded the Justice Department’s intervention.
“This is a critical moment in the fight against institutional antisemitism,” said Brooke Goldstein, founder and executive director of The Lawfare Project.
“The DOJ has made clear that public universities cannot look the other way while Jews are harassed, threatened, and silenced. This marks a turning point—federal civil rights laws apply to Jews, and schools that fail to uphold those protections will be held to account.”
A Hunter College representative said the school cannot comment on pending litigation.
“Hunter College has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate of any kind, and we’re committed to fostering a safe and welcoming campus environment for everyone,” the spokesperson said.
The rare intervention in a federal lawsuit is just the latest example of the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on private and public universities that it claims are failing to stop anti-Israel protests that spew Jew hatred.
Hunter is not the only CUNY campus in the crosshairs.
Last week, anti-Israel agitators brawled with cops at Brooklyn College after they set up a tent encampment and disrupted final exams. The melee drew outrage from Brooklyn lawmakers, who demanded CUNY brass take swift disciplinary action.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced Tuesday that it cancelled another $450 million in grants to Harvard University after it said the Ivy League school “repeatedly failed” to quell race discrimination and antisemitism on campus.
The president’s campus monitors in March also scrapped $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University over the Morningside Heights school’s “failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment.”
They’re also threatening to revoke visas and deport foreign students who engage in disruptive protests and illegal activity.
