Legal victory in court-ordered discovery ruling against Carnegie Mellon University

The Lawfare Project announced they secured a major legal victory in federal court when a judge ordered Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to produce discovery concerning nearly $1 billion in funding from the government of Qatar, rejecting the university’s effort to shield the relationship from scrutiny. 

The ruling arises from a federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging antisemitic discrimination and retaliation against Jewish student Yael Canaan. In a bitterly contested discovery dispute, the court ordered CMU to produce records related to funding from Qatar, institutional governance, and civil-rights enforcement as requested by the Plaintiff.  

“This case shines a light on a dangerous civil rights conflict hiding in plain sight,” said Ziporah Reich, Director of Litigation at The Lawfare Project and counsel for Ms. Canaan. “Foreign governments with appalling human-rights records are funding the very offices meant to protect students’ civil rights. This should alarm every parent, every student, and every policymaker in this country. The court recognized that foreign government funding is not peripheral, but potentially central, to understanding how civil-rights laws are applied on campus. That acknowledgment opens the door for courts nationwide to examine whether hostile foreign state interests are shaping institutional behavior in ways that undermine U.S. law.”

Discovery to date has revealed that a portion of the salary of CMU’s assistant vice provost for DEI and Title IX coordinator was funded by Qatar, and that this official personally discouraged Ms. Canaan from filing a formal antisemitism complaint. Another senior official within CMU’s DEI office secretly recorded Ms. Canaan without her consent. The court has since permitted a count of a violation of the Pennsylvania wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act,18 PA. Cons. Stat. § 5703, 5725 and an intentional infliction of emotional distress distress claim, to be added to the amended complaint.  The DEI official involved in Ms. Canaan’s complaint invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when questioned at her deposition. 

The court also pointed to CMU contracts requiring the university to comply with Qatari “cultural, religious, and social customs,” despite Qatar’s well-documented repression of women, criminalization of homosexuality, and prohibition on the public practice of Judaism. The judge concluded that Qatar and its affiliates could be a source of antisemitic influence on CMU and that a reasonable jury could find the university’s reliance on Qatari funding affected how it handled Jewish civil-rights complaints.

"Universities have a legal obligation to ensure that civil-rights laws are enforced fairly and without external influence,” said Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of The Lawfare Project. "This ruling is an important procedural development in the case"

The discovery order targets administrators responsible for enforcing CMU’s obligations under Title VI and Title IX and allows the case to proceed into a critical evidentiary phase examining whether foreign state funding influenced how antisemitism complaints were addressed at CMU.

Copy of the amended complaint can be found here and the decision motion to compel can be found here.