Department of Justice submits statement of interest in lawsuit filed by the Lawfare Project against CUNY Hunter

The Lawfare Project announced today that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a Statement of Interest supporting its federal civil rights lawsuit against the City University of New York’s Hunter College (“CUNY Hunter”) for permitting a hostile work environment to flourish on campus in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In its Statement of Interest, the DOJ unequivocally rejected CUNY’s argument that the First Amendment barred the lawsuit from proceeding. The US Attorney’s office emphasized that public universities are not immune from liability under Title VII and that material disruptions, threats, and targeted antisemitic harassment fall outside the bounds of protected speech. The DOJ further clarified that even protected speech can be regulated through content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions—tools that CUNY failed to use.

“This is a critical moment in the fight against institutional antisemitism,” said Brooke Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director of The Lawfare Project. “The DOJ has made clear that public universities cannot look the other way while Jews are harassed, threatened, and silenced. This marks a turning point—federal civil rights laws apply to Jews, and schools that fail to uphold those protections will be held to account.”

The lawsuit, filed in December 2024 in partnership with the law firm Alston & Bird, alleges that CUNY Hunter failed to take meaningful action in response to months of antisemitic harassment targeting Dr. Leah Garrett, the Chair in Jewish Studies and Director of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Following the October 7th terrorist attacks against Israel, the campus saw repeated protests glorifying violence against Jews including hostile chants targeting Jewish students and faculty, and vandalism—including swastikas scrawled over the faces of kidnapped Israeli hostages. Despite numerous complaints and clear violations of its own conduct policies, CUNY Hunter allowed this environment to fester without intervention.

“The DOJ has affirmed the core legal principle at the heart of our lawsuit,” said Ziporah Reich, Director of Litigation at The Lawfare Project, which filed the case together with the law firm Alston & Bird. “When speech devolves into targeted, threatening, and disruptive conduct—as it did here—it loses constitutional protection. The government’s position sends a clear message that Title VII protects Jewish faculty from being subjected to a hostile environment, and that public universities are not above the law. Dr. Garrett was not just exposed to offensive speech. She was the target of antisemitic conduct that violated her civil rights. We’re encouraged by this strong stance, and we will not stop until CUNY is held fully accountable for allowing antisemitism to flourish unchecked on its campus.”