Antisemitism Case Against UPenn Dismissed Without Prejudice
The plaintiffs are allowed to re-file complaint with more detailed allegations.
In late 2023, we reported on an antisemitism lawsuit against Ivy-League stalwart the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), in which several Plaintiffs, represented by Manhattan law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, alleged instances of egregious antisemitism coupled with indifference on UPenn’s part to the Plaintiffs’ resulting hell-on-earth situation: UPenn Hit With Antisemitism Lawsuit:
[O]n the same day former [UPenn] President [Liz] Magill [pictured above] and her two antisemitic buddies testified to Congress, Penn was jackhammered with a major antisemitism lawsuit by the same Manhattan heavy-hitter law firm (Kasowitz Benson Torres) that slammed NYU with an antisemitism lawsuit two weeks ago, which we covered: NYU Slammed with Massive Antisemitism Lawsuit…
[T]he Complaint in the Penn lawsuit details the goings on at Penn:
1. Penn, the historic 300-year-old Ivy League university, has transformed itself into an incubation lab for virulent anti-Jewish hatred, harassment, and discrimination. Once welcoming to Jewish students, Penn now subjects them to a pervasively hostile educational environment. Among other things, Penn enforces its own rules of conduct selectively to avoid protecting Jewish students from hatred and harassment, hires rabidly antisemitic professors who call for anti-Jewish violence and spread terrorist propaganda, and ignores Jewish students’ pleas for protection. In doing so, Penn has placed plaintiffs and other Jewish and Israeli students at severe emotional and physical risk.
2. This lawsuit seeks to hold Penn accountable under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for the damages it has caused plaintiffs and for its failure to remedy the hostile environment on its campus. The harassment and discrimination on campus and in the classroom are relentless and intolerable. Plaintiffs and their Jewish peers are routinely subjected to vile and threatening antisemitic slurs and chants such as “Intifada Revolution,” “from the River to the Sea,” “Fuck the Jews,” “the Jews deserve everything that is happening to them,” “you are a dirty Jew, don’t look at us,” “keep walking you dirty little Jew,” “get out of here kikes!” and “go back to where you came from.” Plaintiffs and other Jewish students must traverse classrooms, dormitories, and buildings vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Subjected to intense anti-Jewish vitriol, these students have been deprived of the ability and opportunity to fully and meaningfully participate in Penn’s educational and other programs.
[emphasis added]
To get a feel for what lead Plaintiff Eyal Yakoby experienced at Penn, please watch this five minute video. It is something:
Eyal Yakoby a student @Penn “I used to think this was nonsense, fear-mongering, until I was made aware that Penn recommended students ‘not wear clothing/accessories related to Judaism’.
— Avraham Berkowitz (@GlobalRabbi) December 6, 2023
As I said at the time Yakoby filed the lawsuit against Penn:
This student might be the best trial witness in the history of federal lawsuits, but my guess is Penn will settle this case out of fear that this student will decimate them at trial. I hope not, and I hope Kasowitz lines up about 30 other Jewish student trial witnesses who can testify to the horrific treatment they have suffered at Penn and the university’s appalling lack of response to that treatment.
We shall see.
Well, now, Yakoby’s lawsuit against UPenn has been dismissed “without prejudice” to his refiling it with more detail. You can review Yakoby’s amended complaint containing the “operative” antisemitism allegations here. The dismissal order is displayed for your review at the bottom of this post.
From Bloomberg Law News: Penn Wins Dismissal of Antisemitism Suit by Jewish Students:
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against University of Pennsylvania filed by Jewish students over antisemitism, ruling they failed to show the Ivy League school engaged in intentional discrimination.
US District Judge Mitchell Goldberg ruled Monday in a case by students who sued two months after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, claiming the Philadelphia school fostered a hostile environment that left them feeling unsafe in class or crossing the campus. One of the students, Eyal Yakoby, appeared at a press conference with House Republican leaders.
They sued under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federally funded programs from intentionally discriminating based on ancestry, race, ethnicity or national origin. The law also bars deliberate indifference to discrimination. But the suit failed to allege facts “showing either intentional discrimination or deliberate indifference on the part of Penn,” Goldberg ruled.
“I could find no allegations that Penn or its administration has itself taken any actions or positions which, even when read in the most favorable light, could be interpreted as antisemitic with the intention of causing harm to the plaintiffs,” he wrote. “At worst, plaintiffs accuse Penn of tolerating and permitting the expression of viewpoints which differ from their own.”
An attorney for the students called the judge’s decision “wrong.”
“The court incorrectly held that Penn has to have engaged in antisemitic conduct to be liable under Title VI but that is not so; the test is whether a university is ‘deliberately indifferent’ to protecting Jewish students against antisemitism,” Marc E. Kasowitz said in a statement. “There is a colossal divide between the court’s view of the allegations and the realities of what Jewish students at Penn have been forced to endure.”
A spokesman for Penn declined to comment…
Goldberg, the chief judge in Philadelphia federal court, also dismissed claims by the students of breach of contract and violations of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. He said the students could refile their complaint on the Title VI and contract claims, noting the problems in those areas could potentially be resolved.
The Court has given the Plaintiffs until July 2nd to refile their Complaint on the Title VI and contract claims.
My guess is Marc Kasowitz will be able to re-file with enough detail to survive the inevitable next motion to dismiss by UPenn, but we’ll see. If not, it’s likely to be appealed.
We’ll keep you informed. Chief Judge Goldberg’s opinion dismissing the case without prejudice to re-filing is below:
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Comments
And if the judge’s dismissal is based on an incorrect reading of the law (as opposed to the facts), if indeed intentional indifference is the standard, I guess this could be appealed.
But it just waste’s the complainant’s time. Sort of like intentional indifference by the judge, too bad we can’t get Judge Goldberg for that.
the jewish community messed up by (trying to) claim they are victims
the black matriarchy is in charge and the msm will continue to appease them
the culture of the 2 is 180 degrees
the violent ones are feared
the educated ones are bullied
So as long as UPenn merely fails to curtail Nazis on campus they’re in the clear, it’s only if they explicitly support Nazism that they’re in violation of the law? That seems like a curious misreading!
“ my guess is Penn will settle this case out of fear that this student will decimate them at trial.…”
The law would say that the suit is over if and when the amount sued for is offered in settlement. If he sues for $1 billion, though, Penn would have to agree to pay that to make it go away. Unless they meet that figure, he’s not obligated to accept a lesser one, so off to trial they’d go. And be subject to the uncertain whims of a jury. He might be tempted to accept a lesser amount, but he’s under no legal obligation to do so.
Were I in his shoes, the one thing to which I would ~never~ agree would be not disclosing the figure.
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