StandWithUs v. MIT: Read Every Supreme Court Brief

The Supreme Court now has a fully briefed petition asking it to decide how Title VI of the Civil Rights Act applies to antisemitism on campus. StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, No. 25-1404, arrived at the Court on June 18, 2026, drew eight amicus briefs supporting the petitioners over the following month, and MIT filed its brief in opposition on August 26, 2026.

We have posted every one of those filings. You can read them on our StandWithUs v. MIT case page, which tracks the docket from the March 2024 complaint through the current cert stage.

What the case is about

Katerina Boukin and Marilyn Meyers, joined by the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, sued MIT under Title VI, alleging the university was deliberately indifferent to a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students after October 7, 2023. The district court dismissed the case solely on deliberate-indifference grounds, holding that MIT's escalating response was not clearly unreasonable. The First Circuit affirmed on two independent grounds: that there was no actionable hostile environment based on race, color, or national origin, and, alternatively, that MIT was not deliberately indifferent.

The questions presented

The petition asks the Court to resolve two issues that decide most campus antisemitism cases before any evidence is heard:

• Whether the harassers' subjective discriminatory intent is an element of a hostile environment claim under Title VI.
• Whether the First Amendment bars a plaintiff from pleading a Title VI hostile environment claim based on "protected speech."

Both questions matter far beyond MIT. If intent must be pleaded, students must allege what was inside a harasser's head before discovery. If speech that is protected against government punishment is also carved out of the hostile-environment record, a university can point at each incident individually and never answer for the environment as a whole.

Who filed in support of the petitioners

Eight amicus briefs were filed, an unusually broad showing at the cert stage:

• The American Center for Law and Justice (July 20, 2026), arguing universities can now avoid Title VI liability through minimal, inadequate responses.
• Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League.
• The Manhattan Institute.
• The Center for Jewish Legal Studies, distinguishing criticism of Israeli policy and Jewish theological dissent from discriminatory anti-Zionism.
• U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Rick Scott and the National Jewish Advocacy Center.
• Professor David E. Bernstein, arguing the whole record must be considered when a claim alleges both expression and conduct.
• The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the American Jewish Committee, arguing lower courts apply deliberate indifference far too deferentially.
• The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.

MIT's answer

MIT's brief in opposition, filed August 26, 2026, urges the Court to deny review. Read it alongside the petition and judge the disagreement for yourself.

What happens next

The petition is now ready for distribution to the Justices for conference. Four votes are needed to grant certiorari. We will post any reply brief, the conference date, and the Court's order on the case page as they come in.

Nothing alleged in these filings is a finding. No court has determined whether the allegations are true.