(The Center Square) – Khymani James, indefinitely suspended from Columbia University in 2024, says in a court filing the North Carolina congresswoman leading the Committee on Education and the Workforce “abused her role and authority.”
He says she tried to retaliate against and punish him for First Amendment protected criticism of Israel and support of Palestinian people. James is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to declare Foxx violated his rights to free speech as set by the First Amendment and to award him damages as determined by the court.
Columbia was not required to admit wrongdoing in a $221 million July settlement “to resolve multiple federal agency investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws,” it said in a release, with the federal government signed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. The university is paying $200 million over three years, and another $21 million to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
James’ lawsuit says his one-year suspension and Columbia’s decision after a year to still deny him return to campus were “baldfaced attempts to propitiate Foxx” and the committee. This means to regain favor, or make peace.
James also says the 11th term Republican and her panel “deliberately and official conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism.”
James is named within the footnotes of “Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposes,” published Oct. 31, 2024, from the Committee on Education & the Workforce in the House of Representatives by its Republican staff. Foxx has also made critical comments about the university tied to him on social media.
