Case file
StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice; Katerina Boukin; Marilyn Meyers v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title VI suit alleging MIT was deliberately indifferent to a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students after October 7, 2023. Dismissed by the district court, affirmed by the First Circuit, now before the Supreme Court on a cert petition backed by eight amicus briefs. Read the petition, every amicus brief, and MIT's brief in opposition.
Case information
- Case number
- No. 25-1404 (U.S.)
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United States (on petition for certiorari from the First Circuit)
- Date filed
- March 7, 2024
- Nature of suit
- Civil Rights — Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Cause
- 42 U.S.C. § 2000d — Title VI discrimination (hostile environment / deliberate indifference)
- Status
- Pending — cert petition fully briefed; eight amicus briefs filed in support of petitioners, MIT's brief in opposition filed August 26, 2026
Parties
Plaintiffs
- StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice
- Katerina Boukin
- Marilyn Meyers
Defendants
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Docket
Filings are posted here as they become available. Docket current through August 27, 2026.
| # | Date | Proceeding |
|---|---|---|
| — | March 7, 2024 | Complaint filed against MIT in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging violations of Title VI. |
| — | May 30, 2024 | Amended complaint filed, asserting MIT acted with deliberate indifference to a severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive hostile environment. |
| — | 2024 | MIT moved to dismiss. The district court granted the motion solely on deliberate-indifference grounds, holding MIT's escalating response was not clearly unreasonable. |
| — | 2025 | First Circuit affirmed the dismissal on two independent grounds: no actionable hostile environment based on race, color, or national origin, and, alternatively, no deliberate indifference. |
| — | June 18, 2026 | PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI filed in the Supreme Court of the United States, presenting questions on whether harassers' subjective discriminatory intent is an element of a Title VI hostile-environment claim and whether the First Amendment bars pleading such a claim based on protected speech. Docketed as No. 25-1404. |
| — | July 20, 2026 | Brief amicus curiae of the American Center for Law and Justice filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amici curiae Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Anti-Defamation League filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amicus curiae the Manhattan Institute filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amicus curiae the Center for Jewish Legal Studies filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amici curiae U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Rick Scott and the National Jewish Advocacy Center filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amicus curiae Professor David E. Bernstein filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amici curiae the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the American Jewish Committee filed in support of petitioners. |
| — | July 22, 2026 | Brief of amicus curiae the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy filed in support of the petition for certiorari. |
| — | August 26, 2026 | BRIEF IN OPPOSITION filed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, urging denial of certiorari. |
Docket text is summarized from the public court record. Allegations in filings are not findings, and no court has determined whether any of them are true.
