Pro-Palestinian students sue University of Michigan over free speech issues

The University of Michigan is being sued by current and former students who allege that the school targeted and disproportionately disciplined pro-Palestinian students involved in campus protests.

A federal lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan accuses the school of violating the students’ constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and equal protection under the law. It names the university’s Board of Regents, president, and vice president of student life as defendants.

The University of Michigan allegedly targeted students and student groups for disciplinary proceedings, issued trespass notices that kept them from attending classes, terminated students from campus jobs, and blacklisted them from future employment, according to the lawsuit.

“No such measures are known to have been taken at any time during the previous half century by the University against students engaging in speech and other expressive activities on other important political and human rights issues,” the lawsuit said.

The University of Michigan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many pro-Palestinian student groups have renewed protests calling for their universities to divest from Israeli corporations, defense companies, or companies that financially benefit Israel.

One such protest action included in the University of Michigan suit was a sit-in in the lobby of the President’s office in November 2023. The protest was broken up by police, with the suit alleging that over ten different law enforcement departments were called in and lead to 42 arrests of students.

Though the sit-in was a peaceful protest, the suit alleges that several students were injured as a result of police intervention. Zaynab Elkolaly, one of the plaintiffs, was allegedly thrown to the ground by by a University of Michigan police officer and had her hijab ripped off.

Students who were at the protest were alerted in May, months later, that a complaint was filed against them for alleged violations of the Students Rights and Responsibilities.

The suit alleges there were several issues with the conflict resolution process that violated the school’s own written policies, including that the University of Michigan cannot be its own party in the process.

A student-led panel found that none of the students were responsible for the violations and the the person who brought the complaint failed to establish that the protest disrupted university activity or that the students failed to leave when asked.

But the student panel decision was personally overturned by the school’s vice president of student life, the suit said.

The school official allegedly shifted the burden of proof to the accused students, the suit said, which “retroactively established an entirely different standard after the hearing had concluded and the time for the introduction of evidence had passed.”

The lawsuit also alleges that a complaint against its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was filed by someone who was hired on behalf of the university to bring a complaint against students regarding a “die-in” protest.

It’s believed that the University of Michigan “only ever initiated a complaint against students or student organizations when they hold views in support of divestment to stop a genocide against Palestinian people,” the suit said.