In the spring of 2024, a group of anti-Israel students took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. There were two custodians in the building at the time who ultimately sued the school, claiming they were basically held hostage.
Now a New York judge has overturned the disciplinary actions against these students. Once again, the radical left is untouchable.
FOX News reports:
Columbia University ‘occupiers’ who held staff hostage have discipline overturned by NY judgeA New York state Supreme Court judge has vacated disciplinary sanctions against 22 former and current Columbia University students who took over Hamilton Hall in April 2024 during anti-Israel protests.Justice Gerald Lebovits ruled on Feb. 27, 2026, that the university had improperly relied on sealed arrest records in its internal disciplinary proceedings against the students and the sealed arrests were the only evidence students were in the building during the occupation.”Ultimately, this court concludes that the underlying disciplinary determinations were not impermissibly delayed. But respondent’s internal hearing panel was statutorily barred from taking into account the fact that petitioners had been arrested in Hamilton Hall,” Lebovits wrote. “And the fact of petitioners’ sealed arrests was the only evidence before the hearing panel that petitioners were in Hamilton Hall while it was occupied. As a result, the panel’s determinations that petitioners committed most of the charged disciplinary violations… are arbitrary and capricious.”The court further ruled that under the university’s own guidelines, students must be charged for their individual actions based on available evidence rather than the actions of a larger group.”The court therefore declines petitioners’ request not only to annul the challenged determinations, but also to bar recommencement of disciplinary proceedings against them,” the order stated.
More from the Washington Free Beacon:
The students’ arrest records were sealed after Soros-backed Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg dropped trespassing charges against them. At the time, in June 2024, prosecutors argued that the students should get a pass because they did not have criminal histories and would face discipline at Columbia.The students had challenged their expulsions under something known as an Article 78 proceeding, under which judges can review whether state agencies—or, in this case, university administrative and disciplinary bodies—have applied their own rules in an evenhanded manner. Lebovits said Columbia had not, because—among other reasons—it could not distinguish between varying levels of involvement and culpability among the students, thanks in part to their use of masks and keffiyehs and destruction of security cameras.The university can either appeal the ruling by Lebovits, who also serves as a Columbia Law School adjunct professor, or work to discipline the students relying on different evidence.
The left keeps getting more extreme because every time something like this happens, they are allowed to get away with it. There are never any serious consequences.
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