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Columbia students say Congress is trying to suppress free speech
By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 25, 2025
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By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 25, 2025
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Current and former Columbia and Barnard students involved in campus protests — including one facing deportation proceedings — are urging school administrators not to share disciplinary records with members of the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
A group of students filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month against university officials and the House committee, arguing that lawmakers are seeking to “chill the protected speech” of students by exposing them to negative publicity and compelling school officials to punish students.
The lawsuit follows a Feb. 13 letter from the House committee demanding that Columbia University turn over all disciplinary records related to 11 different campus incidents.
At a hearing on Tuesday afternoon in federal court in lower Manhattan, attorneys for the students, the government and Columbia sparred over whether student records should be shared with Congress — and whether university officials should be allowed to turn them over.
The case underscores the mounting pressure by the Ivy League college as it faces allegations of antisemitism from the Trump administration and lawmakers critical of pro-Palestinian protesters. The university has been at the center of a nationwide movement against the war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023.
Mahmoud Khalil, who is now in ICE custody in Louisiana, is one of the plaintiffs in the case. Other students are using pseudonyms because they fear doxing, threats and other retaliation if their identities are made public, according to court papers.
Amy Greer, an attorney for students, said in court that Congress’ scrutiny of campus protests has had a “profound impact” on students and taken an “immense mental toll.”
She said students she speaks with fear surveillance and harassment, are wary of wearing keffiyehs and are hesitant to share their opinions in class. Some are now in therapy and have post-traumatic stress from violent arrests, she said.
Another lawyer for the students, Gadeir Abbas, said sharing his clients’ disciplinary records with Congress amounts to “viewpoint discrimination” and could allow lawmakers to share their identities with the public.
“They’re trying to suppress our clients’ viewpoints through the disclosure,” he said.
Abbas said Congress is coercing Columbia University to turn over the student records and crack down on speech that’s critical of Israel by threatening to withhold billions of dollars in funding.
In the February letter to school officials, Rep. Tim Walberg, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House committee, said university officials’ negligence had created a “hostile environment” for Jewish students.
“Columbia’s continued failure to address the pervasive antisemitism that persists on campus is untenable, particularly given that the university receives billions in federal funding,” he wrote.
Weeks later, the federal education department pulled $400 million in funding to Columbia.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Todd Tatelman and Matthew Berry, attorneys for Congress, said lawmakers don’t intend to publish students’ names at this point but that the committee might want to know people’s identities to find out how the university has dealt with student protesters.
Columbia has already shared various records with the House committee, Columbia attorney Marshall Miller said in court. He said the university regularly complies with subpoenas and other requests from oversight bodies. But he said the school had taken significant steps to anonymize the records and protect students’ identities.
Miller said he’s concerned that a court order barring the university from turning over records would pose a Catch-22: either violate the court order or risk contempt of Congress.
“That’s a conundrum we want to avoid,” he said.
A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s administration, Harry Graver, said in court that the plaintiffs hadn’t met the legal burden to get an injunction barring Columbia from sharing their records. He said the protesters were not entitled to free speech protections because their speech was “antisemitic harassment” and “unlawful conduct.”
Greer, the students’ lawyer, said it would be “patently false” to characterize all of the protesters’ speech that way and noted that some of the protesters were Jewish, themselves. Congress telling Jewish students how to practice their religion, she said, “is in fact antisemitic.”
District Judge Arun Subramanian, who is presiding over the case, said he’ll issue a ruling “promptly.”
Tagged
education
Israel-Hamas
public safety
manhattan
columbia university
Race And Justice Unit
Politics
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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