Kasowitz Opposes Meritless Motions of Harvard, Penn, and NYU to Dismiss Civil Rights Lawsuits to Stop Campus Antisemitism

Kasowitz Benson Torres, on behalf of Jewish students and Students Against Antisemitism, Inc. at Harvard University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania, has filed briefs opposing motions by all three schools to dismiss the students’ lawsuits against them under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.  Those lawsuits detail—and seek to put an end to—the universities’ long-entrenched policies and practices tolerating and enabling campus antisemitism, which has escalated since the October 7 Hamas massacre and mass rape in Israel.  As shown in the lawsuits, the universities—flouting federal law governing their receipt of taxpayer funds—have permitted students, faculty, and others to harass, discriminate against, and assault Jewish students, demonstrate for the destruction of Israel, and disrupt classes and campus activities.   
 
As the opposition briefs show, the motions to dismiss are legally and factually meritless.  Harvard, NYU, and Penn disingenuously tout their supposed “ongoing” efforts to combat antisemitism, while at the same time characterizing the incessant egregious antisemitism on their campuses as merely “sporadic.”  But as the student encampments of the last few weeks have only confirmed, that version of reality is and always was utterly false.  The universities go so far as to argue that they are the victims—that responding to these cases brought by Jewish students under attack would impose a “hardship” on them.  In short, by telling the courts, “trust us, we’re working on it,” the defendants seek to avoid accountability for their unlawful conduct indefinitely. 

Combat Campus Antisemitism Foundation Ltd. (CCAF) is helping to fund the prosecution of these lawsuits.  CCAF was formed to combat — through litigation under federal, state, and local civil rights laws and other measures — increasingly rampant antisemitism on our country's leading university campuses and at other institutions.  www.combatcampusantisemitism.org 
 
The Kasowitz Benson Torres team representing the students is led by partners Marc E. Kasowitz, Daniel R. Benson, Mark P. Ressler, Andrew L. Schwartz, and Joshua E. Roberts, and includes associates Jillian R. Roffer, Andrew C. Bernstein, William Wolfe Taub, Emily Lowe, Zachary N. Josephs, Brittany F. Alzfan, Erin Ringel, Paulina Flores Elizondo, and Alfredo J. Fernández Torres.