Case over MIT's failure to address anti-Semitism gets dismissed in court

A lawsuit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claiming the school failed to effectively defend Jewish students against anti-Semitism was recently dismissed. 

In the initial 130-page complaint filed May 17 against MIT in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice acting on behalf of two MIT students, sought injunctive relief over MIT’s alleged failure to protect its Jewish students against anti-Semitic harassment. 

[RELATED: Israeli Prime Minister blasts Harvard, Penn, and MIT administrations over anti-Semitism in address to Congress]

The complaint claims that MIT violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through its lack of effective response to anti-Semitism on campus. 

Following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist massacre of Jewish civilians, many Jewish and Israeli students at MIT “were bombarded by social media posts across  MIT-affiliated  platforms, applauding the so-called  ‘resistance’  against  Israel,” the complaint alleges. Many students were also “subjected to in-person demonstrations with participants who engaged in speech and conduct that targeted Jewish students and the very right of existence of the State of Israel,” something that violated MIT policies. 

The lawsuit alleged that MIT “continues to tolerate and  facilitate discriminatory,   harassing   speech   that—worse yet—it  expressly did not tolerate in other comparable historic situations.” The StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice claimed that such a reaction was “glaringly inadequate” to address anti-Semitism. 

On July 30, however, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns approved MIT’s motion to dismiss the case, alleging that, “MIT took steps to contain the escalating on-campus protests that, in some instances, posed a genuine threat to the welfare and safety of Jewish and Israeli students, who were at times personally victimized by the hostile demonstrators.”

[RELATED: MIT student testifies on alleged anti-Semitism in university’s graduate student union]

Stearns added, however, that the “pain and hurt felt by plaintiffs and the Jewish and Israeli students that they seek to represent is genuine and fully understandable.” 

He continued, adding that “at bottom, the fault attributed to MIT is its failure to anticipate the bigoted behavior that some demonstrators-however sincere their disagreement with U.S. and Israeli policies-would exhibit as events unfolded.” 

Carly Gammill, Director of the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, told Campus Reform that the SCLJ will continue to fight anti-Semitism.

”We are disappointed that the court has dismissed the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice lawsuit seeking to hold MIT accountable for failing to protect Jewish and Zionist students from antisemitic hate on its campus. We are immensely grateful to the courageous students and attorneys who made this case possible. The SCLJ will continue its efforts to hold bad actors responsible—whether for perpetuating or showing deliberate indifference to antisemitism—on behalf of students at MIT and campuses across the country,” Gammill said.

Campus Reform has contacted MIT for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.