Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and seven other students of Columbia University filed a complaint on Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to block the university from releasing student or student-worker disciplinary records in relation to 11 specific incidents to the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. These incidents are believed to involve the records of hundreds of students, and the suit seeks an injunction against the release of any and all student records prior to a finding by the court.
The complaint comes in response to a demand letter from the committee on February 13 ordering the university to release the said records “or risk the withholding or withdrawal of ‘billions in federal funding.'” The complaint alleges that this demand is an abuse of power and represents the committee’s attempt to “‘do indirectly what [they] are barred from doing directly,’ which is to chill and suppress speech and association based on the expression of a viewpoint.”
The complaint alleges that the committee’s letter intends to accomplish this by: 1) by exposing the students to negative publicity and investigation, pervasive and persistent harassment, doxing (intentional revelation of an individual’s private information without consent and often with malicious intent), and threats to their wellbeing and lives; and 2) by compelling the University to discipline students as well as to turn over those students’ private disciplinary records.
Terming this “unlawful” government attempt to circumvent the First Amendment as “jawboning,” the complaint claims that the committee is required to show a “substantial relation between the information sought and a subject of overriding and compelling state interest” to succeed in obtaining these records. Acknowledging all forms of hatred, discrimination, and antisemitism as unacceptable, the suit claims that the records demanded by the committee are not substantially related to antisemitism. The complaint further accuses Congress and President Donald Trump of using access to federal funding as a weapon to pressure universities to cooperate with the government in its efforts to stifle free speech and assembly rights.
Stating that the “overly broad” demand letter for student records have no substantial relation to any compelling state interest, the plaintiffs are requesting a permanent injunction preventing the university from complying with the Committee’s demand letter and releasing the records.
Khalil, a Columbia University student himself, was detained by immigration authorities last week and deportation proceedings were begun, sparking protests in some cities across the country. A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation on Monday. Khailil is a permanent resident of the US, and his lawyers had indicated that they were unaware of any law that would permit the State Department to revoke or rescind an individual’s permanent resident status. Khalil is being held at a Louisiana detention facility, with little or no access to his legal counsel. Federal Judge Jesse Furman of the same district where this complaint was filed instructed the government on Wednesday to permit Khail’s lawyers to speak to him privately on phone.
