On December 22, 2025, the AAUP and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) filed an amicus brief in the Third Circuit to affirm the district court’s dismissal of a Title VI lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania. A group of students argued that the university enabled a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus in violation of Title VI—while almost exclusively alleging instances of protected speech and expression critical of Israel and/or Zionism. The brief argues that weaponizing antidiscrimination law to suppress protected speech erodes academic freedom and transforms universities into sites for ideological orthodoxy. Title VI was never intended to repress dissent. The brief also mobilizes findings from AAUP and MESA’s empirical study of Title VI antisemitism claims, finding that the plaintiffs-appellants and their amici bolster their argument through misleading statistics on campus antisemitism. As the report shows, antisemitism investigation counts and complaint data from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and the Anti-Defamation League often wrongly conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism while relying on scant detail and factual allegations to substantiate their claims. Accordingly, the brief supports the defendant-appellee’s request to affirm the lower court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs-appellants’ Title VI claims.
Read the full amicus brief here. The case is currently scheduled for oral argument on May 27, 2026, before the Third Circuit.