BREAKING NEWS: Students Sue Northwestern Over Coercive “Antisemitism” Training
On October 15, 2025, Kapitan Gomaa Law, CAIR-Chicago, and Hawks Quindel filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Northwestern University in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of Graduate Workers for Palestine and affected students.
The lawsuit alleges that Northwestern imposed ethnic and political conformity on students by forcing them to complete a mandatory “antisemitism” training and sign attestations that equate criticism of Israel or Zionism with antisemitism. The required training video—created with the Jewish United Fund (JUF)—reportedly likens anti-Zionist speech to statements by the Ku Klux Klan.
Students who refused on moral or political grounds were threatened with registration holds and termination of their student status. Despite the Faculty Assembly’s overwhelming vote opposing the requirement, Northwestern moved forward, warning that noncompliant students could lose enrollment as soon as October 20, 2025.
The complaint accuses Northwestern of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Section 1981, and the Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act, arguing that these policies silence Palestinian identity, punish solidarity, and chill protected political expression on campus.
Legal partners filed the case to defend students’ rights to free speech, academic freedom, and equality under the law.
Stay tuned for updates to come!