Steven Thrasher, a professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., has sued the university and several federal officials.
Thrasher, who joined the faculty in 2019, was denied tenure in March. He is slated to end his employment at the school in August after he compared Israel to Nazi Germany and participated in anti-Israel campus activities following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, names Northwestern, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as defendants.
He seeks reinstatement, tenure review, damages and an injunction.
Thrasher alleges that Northwestern suspended him from teaching after he linked arms with faculty members during the university’s pro-Palestinian tent encampment in April 2024, blocking students from campus police officers.
He also claims that the school filed criminal charges that prosecutors declined to pursue, repeatedly investigated him, denied him tenure, and ultimately, failed to keep him on under pressure from congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.
In a July 14 essay published on Literary Hub, Thrasher wrote that the defendants “robbed” him of his academic career and livelihood.
