CAIR pushes Columbia to withhold anti-Israel encampment disciplinary records from Congressional committee

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a letter to Columbia University urging administrators not to hand over disciplinary documents to a Congressional committee related to an anti-Israel encampment last spring.

CAIR Executive Director Afaf Nasher and Deputy Litigation Director Gadeir Abbas sent the letter to Columbia President Katrina Armstrong on Thursday, suggesting that any release of such disciplinary records could be unconstitutional.

”Rather than punish these students, we hope that Columbia University will take to heart how these expressive activities began and ended peacefully, without involving police or using force,” Nasher and Abbas wrote. ”As custodian of those records, we believe it is your constitutional obligation to ensure that Columbia University not give in to the House Committee’s Mcarthy-ist efforts to target students, even if that means going to court to limit the subpoena’s scope.”

”For decades now, the Supreme Court has repeatedly invoked the First Amendment as a protection against government efforts to compel the disclosure of a group’s associations. If Columbia University, however, allows itself to be enlisted by the House Committee to violate the rights of students to organize, we will hold it responsible. A decision to turn over disciplinary records exposes Columbia University to substantial legal liability. We urge Columbia University to take its constitutional obligations seriously,” they added.

[RELATED: House education committee chairwoman subpoenas Columbia University for ‘priority documents’ in anti-Semitism investigation]

Columbia University was given a subpoena in late-August by House Education Committee on Education & The Workforce Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), demanding the release of information which includes disciplinary records of students who participated in the encampment.

Campus Reform Higher Education Fellow Ken Tashjy, who previously served as General Counsel for the Massachusetts Community College System, said CAIR is “barking up the wrong tree.”

[RELATED: House committee opens investigation into Rutgers University over ‘pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses’]

”Nothing in the Committee’s subpoena seeks information about a student’s association with or membership in a particular group or organization.  Rather, based to its education oversight authority, the Committee seeks disciplinary records of Columbia students who participated in the unauthorized encampment and/or were involved in alleged antisemitic incidents.  If Columbia refuses to comply with the congressional subpoena, it does so at its own legal peril,” Tashjy said.