Northwestern University must face Palestinian law grad's discrimination suit

By Karen Sloan

May 13 (Reuters) - A former Northwestern law student can proceed with a discrimination lawsuit that claims the school failed to protect her from being harassed over her pro-Palestine activism, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

Plaintiff Yasmeen Elagha in November sued Northwestern and several law school officials, including law dean Hari Osofsky, alleging she was discriminated against and subjected to a hostile educational environment.

Elagha, who is a Palestinian Muslim, said university officials failed to intervene after fellow students falsely claimed she attacked them during a campus protest. She also alleged that students released her personal information online and got her job offer at a major law firm rescinded.

U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras in Chicago dismissed Elagha's claim of a hostile educational environment, but allowed her claim of intentional discrimination to proceed after Northwestern filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Other universities are also facing lawsuits alleging discrimination against pro-Palestinian students, as campus tensions have escalated over the war in Gaza, including at the University of California at Los Angeles and Columbia University.

Elagha's allegations that she made multiple harassment complaints, which the defendants failed to respond, permitted "an inference of intentional discrimination," Kocoras wrote in his opinion.

A Northwestern University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Attorney Ahmad Zaher, who is representing Elagha, said he and his client are "confident in the strength of the remaining issues."

Elagha, who graduated from Northwestern Law in May 2024, claimed that she and other students asked the university to intervene after they were harassed and threatened during a pro-Palestine campus protest in November 2023 but that the university took no action. She asked the university in 2022 to issue a no-contact directive against another student who had targeted her but was denied, she claimed.

Law firm DLA Piper rescinded her job offer after a fellow law student falsely claimed Elagha assaulted her during a protest, according to the suit. Subsequent internal university review concluded that no assault took place, according to the lawsuit.

When the Illinois Board of Law Admissions requested additional information about the protest incident, Northwestern law officials took at least two weeks to issue a letter saying Elagha had been cleared of wrongdoing, according to her suit.

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