Stand With Us Center v. MIT

Summary

In March 2024, the nonprofit StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alleging that the university had allowed antisemitism on campus. The plaintiffs were the organization and two Jewish MIT students, Katerina Boukin and Marilyn Meyers. They claimed that MIT tolerated pro-Palestinian protests and other activity that made Jewish and Israeli students feel harassed, unsafe, or excluded following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israel-Gaza war. The complaint cited disruptions of classes, demonstrations and chants at campus rallies, protests outside faculty offices and programs connected to Israel, vandalism, and intimidation. The lawsuit sought injunctive relief requiring MIT to adopt stronger policies addressing antisemitism, discipline students or staff engaging in such conduct, and publicly condemn antisemitic behavior. The case was captioned StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, Boukin, and Meyers v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the protests were protected political speech and did not amount to actionable discrimination under federal law. In August 2024, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the motion to dismiss. The court held that the complaint did not plausibly allege that MIT acted with deliberate indifference to discrimination in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While acknowledging that some incidents described by the plaintiffs could be viewed as hostile or offensive, the court concluded that the university had taken steps to respond to tensions on campus and that the alleged conduct did not meet the legal standard for severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment required for a Title VI claim.

The plaintiffs appealed. On October 21, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the dismissal. The appellate court concluded that the incidents described in the complaint, including rallies, chants, and demonstrations connected to pro-Palestinian protests, did not plausibly rise to the level of actionable harassment under federal law. The court emphasized that disruptive or controversial political demonstrations on campus are generally protected expression and that the allegations did not show that MIT was deliberately indifferent to discrimination.

A separate lawsuit, Sussman et al. v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alleging antisemitism at MIT was later filed by another Jewish student and advocacy groups, asserting that harassment and a hostile environment forced the student to leave the university. That case was also dismissed by a federal court in early 2026.