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Court Tosses Faculty for Justice in Palestine “McCarthyism” Lawsuit Against UPenn

Court Tosses Faculty for Justice in Palestine “McCarthyism” Lawsuit Against UPenn

The court dismissed the faculty group’s claims with prejudice, closing the door to a future lawsuit.

For the second time, a federal court has rejected an anti-Zionist faculty group’s lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania, alleging “a new form of McCarthyism” violated their academic freedom at the school.

Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Mitchell Goldberg dismissed the case with prejudice, foreclosing any future attempts by the group to refile it.

The Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine (PFJP) and two Penn professors filed their first complaint last March to stop the university from cooperating with a congressional investigation into antisemitism on its campus. We covered the months-long probe of Penn and other schools by the House Committee on Education in the Workforce here.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs cast themselves as victims of a modern-day Red Scare, likening the Committee to the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950’s, conducting a “McCarthyesque” inquiry into unfounded accusations of antisemitism.

One of the plaintiffs, Arabic literature Professor Huda Fakhreddine, had come under scrutiny during the investigation.  The Committee identified her by name for making antisemitic statements in support of Hamas after its October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel. Fakhreddine is a founding member of the PFJP chapter that opened in January 2024, one of over 100 FJP groups that sprang up on college campuses after the massacre.

On December 5, 2023, the Committee held a hearing where former Penn President Elizabeth Magill was questioned. The Committee demanded Magill explain “[h]ow Jewish students in Fakhreddine’s classes [are] supposed to receive fair treatment when she endorses hatred?” The Committee also asked why Fakhreddine was still employed. Readers will recall that Magill resigned in disgrace days after her disasterous testimony at the hearings.

Following the hearings, the Committee addressed a letter to Penn expressing its “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Penn’s response to antisemitism on its campus”—again calling out Fakhreddine:

Associate Professor of Arabic Literature Huda Fakhreddine publicly celebrated the attack on the morning of October 7, tweeting in Arabic that “while we were asleep, Palestine invented a new way of life.” At an October 16, 2023, anti-Israel protest on Penn’s campus, Fakhreddine said, “Israel is the epitome of antisemitism … it desecrates the memory of the Holocaust victims. It humiliates every Jewish person.” Fakhreddine also applauded a speaker’s statement that Jews should “go back to Moscow, Brooklyn, Gstaad, or f*cking Berlin where you came from.”

The Committee demanded Penn produce a long list of documents related to these and other events. Although the letter didn’t legally compel Penn to produce the information, the school indicated it would honor the request, according to the court filings.

In their original lawsuit, the PFJP members claimed Penn’s compliance with the document request threatened their “privacy, safety, academic freedom and careers,” and that they had already been “doxxed” for exercising their right to free speech. They asked the court to stop Penn from sending documents to the House Committee.

Last June, Judge Goldberg dismissed the group’s case for lack of standing. Their claim based on the possibility that Penn might produce documents that could subject them to public harassment, he ruled, was too speculative.

With leave from the court, the group then amended and refiled their complaint, including constitutional, breach of contract, and conspiracy claims by the two professors against the university.

This time, although it was still unclear what documents Penn had produced, the faculty group doubled down, alleging “broad categories of documents Penn may have sent” that were “‘likely‘ responsive to” the Committee’s letter. They sought damages for documents already produced to the Committee by Penn and asked the court to block the school from complying with future requests.

But all to no avail. Last week Judge Goldberg again rejected their case for lack of standing and failure to state a claim, finding they still had failed to allege more than speculative harm. “Their continued failure to cure these deficiencies,” the judge wrote, “bolsters my conclusion that Plaintiffs lack standing.”

It probably didn’t help their case that instead of fixing the problems with their pleadings, the plaintiffs argued to the judge that his findings were “beside the point.” You’ll find that howler on page 5 of the decision embedded below.

Although the group may not resubmit their claim, PFJP announced in an Instagram post it would appeal the court’s ruling. Given what they’ve put in front of the judge so far, their filing will likely be another exercise in futility.

 

 

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Comments


 
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mailman | February 4, 2025 at 1:25 pm

Stop calling them anti-zionists…they are flat out RACISTS in the fullest meaning of the word!!


     
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    Paula in reply to mailman. | February 4, 2025 at 3:51 pm

    One of the hostages that was just released said that there is no difference between Hamas fighters and Palestinians. Every man, woman and child from 8 years on up would’ve killed them given a chance. Anybody peaceful was either autistic or mentally retarded.


     
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    Milhouse in reply to mailman. | February 4, 2025 at 9:57 pm

    Anti-zionism is racism (with very few exceptions).

conducting a “McCarthyesque” inquiry
Just because you turned an adjective into a label for “bad things” doesn’t mean it’s illegal or unconstitutional. And, ironically for you, McCarthy was right.

Given what they’ve put in front of the judge so far, their filing will likely be another exercise in futility.
Isn’t there a frivolous lawsuit statute or something they could be slapped down with?


 
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Voco Veritas | February 5, 2025 at 11:42 am

Leftist brain dead baby murdering marxists must be stopped at all costs.


 
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Dean Robinson | February 7, 2025 at 7:42 am

The purpose of all this legal hullabaloo is to attract attention and funding from the hard core Left, as well as to delay facing the consequences of their racist attacks on Jews. They will therefore appeal and continue to launch new attacks until they are defunded or removed.

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