Kasowitz Files Amended Lawsuit Adding New Plaintiffs and Detailing New Allegations of Penn’s Antisemitic Hostile Educational Environment and Egregious Civil Rights Violations
Kasowitz Benson Torres has filed an amended complaint against the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) detailing new allegations concerning Penn’s egregious violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in continuing to act with deliberate indifference to its hostile antisemitic educational environment that excludes Jewish students from the protections of Penn’s codes of conduct – policies Penn readily enforces for the benefit of other protected groups. The amended complaint adds an individual plaintiff as well as an organizational plaintiff, Students Against Antisemitism, Inc., whose members include Jewish Penn students.
The amended complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on March 4, 2024, alleges that Penn continues to foster an environment where antisemitism thrives unchecked, with students and faculty harassing and defaming Jews with impunity, with Jewish students attacked with such antisemitic slurs and chants as “f**k the Jews,” “you are a dirty Jew, don’t look at us,” “get out of here kikes!” and “go back to Moscow, Brooklyn . . . f**king Berlin where you came from.”
Among other relief, plaintiffs are requesting injunctive relief requiring Penn to take all necessary and appropriate measures to remedy Penn’s Title VI violations, and monetary damages.
The Kasowitz Benson Torres team representing the University of Pennsylvania students is led by partners Marc E. Kasowitz, Daniel R. Benson, Mark P. Ressler and Andrew L. Schwartz, and includes associates Joshua E. Roberts, Jillian R. Roffer, Andrew C. Bernstein and William Wolfe Taub.