Texas’ Rice University Hit with Legal Action By Muslim Legal Fund of America After Barring Muslim and Jewish Students’ Divestment Vote

Civil Litigation attorneys in MFLA’s Legal Division have filed a Title VI complaint against Rice University, in Houston, TX, on behalf of Muslim and Jewish students attempting to pass a resolution on divesting from companies complicit in Israel’s war against Gaza. 

In March, Rice’s Student Association scheduled a vote on whether to adopt the student resolution but Rice’s administration responded with an unprecedented move to halt all discussion of the resolution after receiving just one unsupported student complaint. 

“They were saying, ‘You can't even hold a vote on it,’ and that seemed to us an egregious overreaction,” said MLFA Civil Litigation Senior Staff Attorney, Chelsea Glover. “Then we learned that they had told the students that, based on what we consider to be inapplicable Texas law and very tenuously related federal law, they were subjecting themselves to potential lawsuits from other members of the community as well as subjecting the school to potential negative ramifications just by discussing the resolution, which is not true.”

Title VI refers to a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. Specifically, Title VI ensures that no person in the U.S. is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of or subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that is federally funded. 

Glover adds that Rice has yet to complete its investigation or allow the Student Association to vote on its resolution. 

The Civil Litigation team says it contacted Rice students throughout the summer to determine their next steps in planning a vote during the fall semester. While the university’s administration is not obligated to divest funds from its sponsors at the request of the student government, the move was a way for the students to draw attention to the United States’s complicity in the war on Gaza. 

“To us, there is no potential legal consequence to raise even if those students voted in favor of the resolution because they [Rice University] don't have to take any action necessarily,” said Glover. “And so to us, this is just an overly defensive, fearful posture by the university.” 

As Rice is a private research institution based in Texas, it has ties to defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, which are said to be responsible for an estimated 2,000 Hellfire missiles launched by Israel’s Apache helicopters in Gaza since October 7, 2023. 

MLFA's legal division has filed several Title VI complaints with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights since students nationwide have received backlash for advocating for Palestinian liberation. 

In June, MLFA filed a similar complaint against Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, on behalf of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and allied students after they experienced harassment and discrimination based on their race, national origin, religion and perceived status because of their pro-Palestinian advocacy. 

In April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott deployed state troopers on students who were peacefully protesting at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), and students at the Univerity of Texas at Dallas (UTD), after signing legislation to protect free speech in 2019. MLFA’s Civil Litigation Department Head, Christina A. Jump called out Abbott for his hypocrisy in a video response. 

Earlier this year, Harvard University also received a formal complaint after Palestinian and Muslim students reported being harassed, demanding an investigation into Harvard’s failure to protect these students from intimidation and threats. 

Under federal law, Rice University must comply with its obligations to provide all students with a school environment free of discrimination based on their shared ancestry. MLFA is urging the Department of Education to promptly investigate Rice University’s discriminatory treatment of its Muslim and Jewish students advocating for Palestine.