A federal judge on Tuesday allowed a lawsuit concerning Texas universities’ enforcement of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order on antisemitism to proceed in court.
In May, pro-Palestine organizations across the state, including the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT, sued Abbott and state universities, stating Abbott’s executive order on antisemitism violates the First Amendment. The lawsuit also asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction preventing universities from enforcing the governor’s order.
The court order allowed the plaintiffs’ complaints about UT’s suspension of the PSC and universities’ enforcement of Abbott’s executive order to continue in court. The order also terminated Abbott as a defendant in the lawsuit, but President Hartzell and UT System Board of Regents members are still defendants.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said the plaintiffs are “likely to succeed” in proving policies in compliance with the governor’s order are unconstitutional. However, Pitman denied their request for an injunction that would prevent universities from enforcing the order because the plaintiffs’ proposed injunction was “overbroad.”
The governor’s executive order calls on universities to update their free speech policies to address rising antisemitism and singles out PSC and Students for Justice in Palestine as potential violators.
The order directs universities to incorporate the definition of antisemitism established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance — an organization that “address(es) contemporary challenges related to the Holocaust” — in their free speech policies.
Pitman said enforcing this particular definition of antisemitism, which includes calling Israel “a racist endeavor” as an example, violates the First Amendment because it punishes a certain kind of speech.
The University is unsure about its next steps but will make its position clear in its next court filings, the timing of which is unknown, University spokesperson Mike Rosen said in an email.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the students, welcomed the judge’s order in a Tuesday press release, stating their “substantive claims” were allowed to proceed.
“The court’s ruling confirms what we already knew,” said Gadeir Abbas, a national deputy litigation director at CAIR representing the plaintiffs. The government cannot make special rules insulating Israel from criticism, and pretending those rules are about antisemitism does not save them from constitutional scrutiny.”
