A district judge said Thursday that Columbia University is not to give the House Education Committee information it had requested about student disciplinary actions until after a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
The GOP-led House panel had demanded data on recent activities on campus, including student-specific disciplinary information, as Republicans accuse the university of failing to shield students from antisemitism, the same accusation levied by the Trump administration as it withholds hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding from Columbia.
Detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student, and others sued to block the school from handing over student records.
The Thursday ruling from Judge Arun Subramanian says it is not based on the merits of the case but to maintain the “status quo” until a hearing is held on the matter.
Khalil, a legal immigrant, sued after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He became a target due to his time as lead negotiator for Columbia’s pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.
“The records demanded by the Committee are not substantially related to antisemitism. Rather, the Committee has instrumentalized accusations of antisemitism to attack ideas it ideologically opposes. It traffics in anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic dog whistles to justify unjustifiable intrusions on First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit stated.
The ruling by Subramanian comes the same day Columbia has to decide if it will accept the federal government’s demands to change disciplinary actions and other university policies in order to begin talks to restore the $400 million in federal funding.
Columbia has become a top target of the Trump administration after protesters at the school served as the epicenter for the pro-Palestinian campus movement last spring that led to the arrest of more than 2,000 individuals across the country.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Education Committee, said the information the committee wants from Columbia is “critical to its consideration of legislation on this issue.”
“Our Committee will continue its work to protect Jewish students and hold schools accountable for their failures to address rampant antisemitism on our college campuses,” he added.
