Kasowitz, on Behalf of Jewish Students at the University of Pennsylvania, Files Appeal in Third Circuit

Kasowitz, on behalf of Jewish students at the University of Pennsylvania, has filed a brief in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals appealing the district court’s decision wrongfully dismissing the students’ case for violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

The complaint alleges that Penn failed to adequately respond to the rabid antisemitism that engulfed its campus in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attack in Israel.    

Jewish students on Penn’s campus were exposed to, among other things, calls for violence and harassment including, “globalize the intifada,” “get out of here kikes,” “keep walking you dirty little Jew”; denied entry to buildings because of their Jewish identities; confronted with antisemitic graffiti such as “the Jews R Nazis”; and exposed to calls for their murder by their own professors at demonstrations on campus.  Penn failed to take necessary and appropriate disciplinary or safety measures in response to the numerous instances of such antisemitic harassment and intimidation.

Although the Jewish students’ complaint was filled with numerous examples of antisemitism giving rise to actionable claims under Title VI, Judge Goldberg in the court below held, incredibly, that there were no facts of deliberate indifference to campus antisemitism at Penn to support a lawsuit.  

The Kasowitz team representing the University of Pennsylvania students is led by partners Marc E. Kasowitz, Andrew L. Schwartz, and Amit R. Vora, and includes associates Andrew C. Bernstein, Jillian R. Roffer, Zachary N. Josephs, Erin Ringel, Dana Simcox, and Alfredo J. Fernández Torres.