UT Austin Students Sue Over Arrests, Disciplinary Action From Pro-Palestinian Protest

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott condemned the protest and called in state police to disperse the campus encampment.

Texas University policemen arrest a pro-Palestinian protestor at the University of Texas in Austin on April 29, 2024. Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images

Four current and former students at the University of Texas–Austin are suing the university and the state over their arrests and disciplinary actions stemming from pro-Palestinian protests on campus last year.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleges violations of the students’ First Amendment rights when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, with the approval of UT Austin President Jay Hartzell, called in state police to dismantle a protest encampment in April 2024.

More than 130 protesters were arrested during the demonstrations, which were part of a nationwide wave of campus protests opposing Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by the Hamas terrorist group.

Abbott at the time condemned the demonstrations and called for the expulsion of students involved in the protest.

“These protesters belong in jail,” he wrote in a post on X. “Students joining in hate-filled, anti-Semitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”

Those arrested were charged with criminal trespassing, although the Travis County Attorney’s Office decided not to prosecute. In July, UT Austin stated that the students’ actions warranted suspension but offered a form of deferred suspension, a probationary status allowing students to stay enrolled and keep the disciplinary action from appearing on their final transcripts—provided they passed a test on university policies and waived their right to appeal.

More than a year after the incident, the four plaintiffs alleged they “suffered physical injuries, lived in fear of further punishment, and were directly targeted based on anti-Palestinian bias.”

Their complaint alleges that police enforced an “arrest quota” and used “excessive crowd-control tactics,” including tackling students, zip-tying them tightly enough to cause bruising, and forcibly removing a Muslim student’s headscarf.

The students also took issue with the university’s disciplinary measures, saying that the arrested protesters were placed on administrative hold until they decided whether to accept the probation offer, and that those who declined and unsuccessfully appealed would face a one-year suspension.

Each of the four suing students “reluctantly accepted the offer of deferred suspension or probation, fearing a harsher sanction or a prolonged disciplinary process,” according to the lawsuit.

The students are seeking a court judgment that the university and governor’s actions were unconstitutional, a reversal of all disciplinary measures, and punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

The lawsuit was filed by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, an advocacy group that has previously joined three students from Cornell University in challenging a pair of President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at tightening student visa vetting and holding those engaged in “anti-Semitic harassment and violence” accountable. That case was ultimately dismissed after lead plaintiff Momodou Taal voluntarily left the United States before immigration authorities could pursue his deportation.

UT Austin and Abbott’s office did not respond to requests for comment.