Columbia University must give detained activist Mahmoud Khalil and other students 30 days' notice before handing over any more documents to Congress as it investigates antisemitism on college campuses, a federal judge in New York ruled Friday.
But U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian stopped short of outright blocking the Manhattan university from complying with the congressional requests, as lawyers for the activists sought.
Instead, the Manhattan judge said the student could amend their request for a temporary restraining order and refile it if they address certain issues raised in court.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, called the decision a “victory for credible oversight." He said a court-ordered injunction would interfere with an ongoing congressional inquiry.
“The work to investigate antisemitism on our nation’s college campuses and develop legislative solutions will continue,” he said in a statement. "Our Committee will not sit by idly as a wave of antisemitic threats flood our colleges and universities and interfere with students’ education.”
Lawyers for Khalil and the other students said the decision means they can continue pursuing their legal fight against the congressional efforts.
In a high-level deportation fight in Newark, the Trump administration has urged a federal judge to move the case of Mahmoud Khalil to Louisiana. The Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist is asking to be freed from a Louisiana detention center, but his lawyers want a New Jersey judge to decide. NBC New York's Chris Glorioso reports.
“We now know that the government is testing the First Amendment’s limits, and the limits of what we as a society will allow,” the lawyers wrote in a statement. “We, as a collective, must stand together against these unlawful incursions into our protected speech.”
Khalil, a Columbia graduate student who is facing deportation for his role in campus protests against Israel, and other students had requested the order after filing a lawsuit seeking to block the House Committee on Education and the Workforce from obtaining disciplinary records for students involved in demonstrations.
The group had also asked the judge to stop the Trump administration from going through with threats to terminate Columbia’s federal funding and the school from complying with the government's demands for policy changes. But Subramanian said they needed to explain what standing they had to challenge these moves.
The judge noted that some student records had already been turned over, but that Columbia says the documents were scrubbed of all identifying information and that it doesn't intend to produce any more records at this time.
A spokesperson for Columbia didn't immediately comment.
