Efforts by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to hold their school accountable for allowing a proliferation of antisemitism have hit a wall as the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts embraced arguments for dismissal.
Judge Richard G. Stearns supported the defendant in StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, Katerina Boukin, and Marilyn Meyers v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Stearns wrote in his decision that “to fault MIT for what proved to be a failure of clairvoyance and a perhaps too measured response to an outburst of ugliness on its campus would send the unhelpful message that anything less than a faultless response in similar circumstances would earn no positive recognition in the eyes of the law.”
In his analysis, the student plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and did not show that MIT failed to prevent a conspiracy to interfere with students’ civil rights.
