BUZZ
Citing procedural error, judge says alumni may refile the lawsuit
Alumni suing George Washington University alleging “shameful complicity” in campus antisemitism faced a setback Friday when a federal judge dismissed their case.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden’s problem with the lawsuit was procedural, and he told the plaintiffs that they may refile an amended complaint within 30 days, The GW Hatchet student newspaper reports.
“Though the Complaint paints a dark picture, its length — spanning nearly two hundred pages and over one thousand paragraphs— violates basic pleading rules,” McFadden wrote.
The ruling partially granted a request from the private university’s lawyers. They had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs could not refile it, according to the Hatchet.
In court documents, lawyers for the university argued that campus leaders “did not ignore antisemitic actions on campus but rather repeatedly condemned them by disciplining students and organizations and working with the Metropolitan Police Department to clear the pro-Palestinian encampment that took place in U-Yard last year.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2025, names two alumni and a group of unnamed plaintiffs that include current students and professors.
In recent years, they allege that university leaders have not equally applied the Code of Student Conduct to pro-Palestinian protesters, the Hatchet reports:
Alumni Sabrina Soffer and Ari Shapiro and an anonymous group of students, alumni and other stakeholders known as “Compliance, Accountability, Policy, Ethics – Ed,” or CAPE-Ed, argued GW violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the D.C. Human Rights Act — which prohibit educational programs from discriminating based on race, national origin and religion — by allowing “hostile acts” to be perpetrated against Jewish and Israeli students.
The plaintiffs alleged the University failed to mitigate antisemitic acts and deprived Jewish and Israeli students of their educational experience on the basis of their national origin, ethnicity and ancestry, citing the treatment of Jewish and Israeli students during the 13-day pro-Palestinian encampment in University Yard in spring 2024. …
The complaint cited instances of Jewish students being harassed during the encampment, with protesters allegedly yelling “Zionists go to hell” and “We don’t want no Jewish state” at Jewish students, arguing that the University “allowed” the encampment to “take root” on campus rather than taking preventative action.
George Washington University has faced similar accusations from the Trump administration.
Like many other higher education institutions, the Washington, D.C. university has been the scene of contentious anti-Israel demonstrations in recent years.
In August 2025, the Department of Justice announced the university violated civil rights law by failing to adequately address reports of misconduct and harm experienced by “Jewish and Israeli students and faculty,” The Fix reported at the time.
In 2024, anti-Israel protesters spray-painted a bust of President George Washington, writing “disclose divest now” on the monument, The College Fix previously reported.
And just weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, a pro-Palestine student group projected “Glory to our martyrs,” “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” and “Divestment from Zionist genocide now,” on the campus library. The protest prompted the university postponed its annual Diversity Summit.
MORE: GWU professor faces investigation, federal complaint for antisemitism
