Overview
- CAIR’s Chicago branch filed a federal lawsuit contending Northwestern’s mandatory antisemitism module and conduct rules violate the Civil Rights Act.
- Plaintiffs include Graduate Workers for Palestine plus two doctoral students, one of Syrian and Palestinian descent and another who publicly associates with those students.
- The required training features a Jewish United Fund video that juxtaposes comments by David Duke with statements from anti-Israel activists, which plaintiffs say equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
- Northwestern set a completion deadline tied to registration holds for noncompliance, and the complaint says roughly three dozen students declined the training.
- The suit also challenges a post-encampment ‘Intimidation Policy,’ seeks to bar use of the IHRA definition and obtain damages, while Northwestern says students only attest to follow policies rather than endorse viewpoints.