The Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal filed a "friend of the court" brief in the lawsuit against the Trump administration's abrupt cancellation of $400 million in critical federal research funding for Columbia University, seeking to provide the court with analysis rejecting the false premise that protests in support of Palestinian rights are antisemitic or that they violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program receiving federal funding.

The lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), two national labor organizations for teachers and professors, argues that the Trump administration's efforts to coerce universities into policing free speech and academic freedom by "holding hostage billions of dollars of congressionally authorized federal funding" violates the law. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the restoration of funding and prohibiting further unlawful actions by the Trump administration.

Our brief argues that pro-Palestinian encampments and other speech activity critical of Israel's ongoing genocide is protected under the First Amendment and does not violate federal civil rights laws. Instead, pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia target the policies of a foreign government — not students’ race, color, or national origin. They fall outside Title VI's reach while lying squarely within the First Amendment’s political speech protections. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act does not and cannot require universities to punish expression critical of Israel’s oppressive treatment of Palestinians. Doing so would not only violate the First Amendment but could lead universities to violate Title VI by discriminating against Palestinians, whom the statute protects. Moreover, the brief points out that Jewish students at Columbia were a substantial part of organizing and leading the Gaza encampment and other student protests supporting Palestinian rights.

The brief comes as NYPD officers brutally arrested over 80 pro-Palestinian activists engaged in a sit-in in the Butler Library and responded with excessive force against individuals picketing outside Columbia, in addition to reporters.

This amicus brief builds on the Center for Constitutional Rights and partners' historic work to challenge repression against Palestine solidarity activists, which has skyrocketed since October 2023.