BREAKING: Federal Court Denies Cooper Union’s Motion to Dismiss

On February 5, 2025, U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan entered an Order denying Cooper Union's motion to dismiss the civil rights claims asserted against it in the lawsuit filed by The Lawfare Project and co-counsel Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP. 

 The lawsuit alleges that Cooper Union failed to adequately address the surge in antisemitism on its campus following the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, allowing Jew-hatred on campus to fester to the point where Jewish students were trapped in a library, fearing for their safety as a mob pounded on the windows—and yet the school told the police not to intervene. 

The Court emphatically rejected Cooper Union’s attempt to escape liability by victim-blaming its Jewish students–faulting them for “gather[ing] in a prominent place in the library where they could be seen by the demonstrators,” and for refusing the suggestion to “hid[e] in the windowless upstairs portion of the library out of the demonstrators’ sight or escap[e] the library through a back exit.” In doing so, Judge Cronan issued the following scathing admonishment of the school:

“The Court is dismayed by Cooper Union’s suggestion that the Jewish students should have hidden upstairs or left the building, or that locking the library doors was enough to discharge its obligations under Title VI. These events took place in 2023—not 1943—and Title VI places responsibility on colleges and universities to protect their Jewish students from harassment, not on those students to hide themselves away in a proverbial attic or attempt to escape from a place they have a right to be.”

“We are pleased that the court has allowed our lawsuit against Cooper Union to move forward,” said Ziporah Reich, Director of Litigation at The Lawfare Project. “Universities that permit a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus and fail to enforce their own policies against harassment will face consequences. We are proud to stand up for our clients and send a clear message to schools that turning a blind eye to antisemitism will not be ignored.”