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Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student facing deportation after protesting Israel's war in Gaza, sued the school and the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce over lawmakers' demand that Columbia turn over student disciplinary records for 11 protests on campus.
The "overbroad and overreaching" order infringes on Columbia students' First Amendment rights by exposing their identities, opening them to harassment and compelling Columbia to punish them for protected speech protesting the Israel-Gaza war, the lawsuit states.
Columbia "stands at the ready" to turn over the records despite objections from Khalil's lawyers, according to the lawsuit.
Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia and a permanent U.S. resident, was thrust into what lawyers have called a flagrant violation of his First Amendment rights when he was arrested by immigration authorities last week and threatened with deportation for protesting Israel's war in Gaza. The Trump administration has argued that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the authority to deport Khalil if his presence in the country could have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday by Khalil and seven other unnamed Columbia students in the Southern District of New York, contends that the House committee and Columbia are waging a broader assault on student protesters' protected speech. They are seeking an injunction to stop Columbia from complying with the House order.
The complaint names Columbia and the university's president, Katrina Armstrong, Columbia's Barnard College and its president, Laura Ann Rosenbury, and the House Committee on Education and Workforce and its chairman, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan).
"This lawsuit changes nothing," Walberg said in a statement. "The information the Committee is requesting 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."
Columbia University declined to comment. Barnard College did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
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