Judge may have just thrown wrench in GOP’s crackdown on violent campus protests

A district court in New York on Thursday temporarily barred Columbia University and Barnard College from releasing student disciplinary records to Congress.

The order, issued by Biden-appointed District Judge Arun Subramanian, is in place at least until a court hearing on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. The motion was requested by Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student facing deportation for his involvement in the violent campus protests at the university.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce requested the disciplinary documents in February to review how the school was handling the “rampant antisemitism” on campus. While temporary, Khalil and the other students involved in the case seek to permanently prevent the university from releasing the documents.

If upheld, Congress could have no way of ensuring universities are enforcing civil rights laws and protecting students from discrimination.

Although Columbia on March 13 claimed to have punished several students for their involvement in the overtaking of a campus building in 2024 during the protests, a spokesman for the university refused to state the names and number of students who were suspended, expelled or had their degrees revoked.

Due to the school’s seeming lack of enforcement of civil rights law, the Trump administration in early March slashed $400 million in federal funding from Columbia. The administration then gave the university an ultimatum with a list of demands, including adopting additional protest policies and holding students accountable for their actions.

Investigations launched into Columbia and several other universities in 2024 following the nationwide campus chaos found many schools at fault for failing to protect Jewish students and in some cases, revealed administrators had actively encouraged protesters. Dozens of universities have been put on the Trump administration’s radar due to similar events.

Columbia, Barnard and the committee did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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