Columbia University has 'absolutely' breached their contract, says Jay Edelson

New York Police now clearing a building last night at Columbia University that protesters had taken over the night before. This coming weeks after students began gathering to call for Columbia to divest from companies connected to Israel, roughly 100 people were arrested. New York Mayor Eric Adams spoke to Morning Joe in the last hour. We want the the schools across the city to be clear that the the the property of the schools are for the students. More than just Columbia is more than what we saw at City College. This needs to be a Clarion call for our country. These are our children and we can’t allow them to be radicalized, like children are being radicalized across the globe. Earlier this week, a Jewish student filed a class action lawsuit against the school for allegedly failing to provide a safe learning environment. It’s a fascinating lawsuit that could have a much larger implications. Joining us right now is Jay Adelson, the lawyer for that student. We should mention we’ve also reached out to the law firm representing Columbia and have not yet heard back, but it’s nice to see you this morning. This is a effectively a breach of contract lawsuit, which is to say that students effectively pay to go to school. And you’re saying they can’t? They can’t. Yeah. And I I think I’m a lawyer, we always have to say allegedly not in this case, they absolutely breach their contract. I don’t even think Columbia is arguing otherwise. We’ve been talking to Columbia. We already did a court hearing yesterday, and they’ve agreed that they cannot maintain a safe environment. You’ve got kids who work their whole life to get into one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and they can’t go to class and they’re being forced off because they’re Jewish. It’s insane this America that that that should not be happening. And so you brought this case, you’ve gotten phone calls from all over the country. I imagine this is just going to be potentially the first of many lawsuits similar to this. Well, we’ll see. So you know it. It’s really interesting. You see universities dealing with it different ways. And and I appreciate the mayor’s comments. I think he’s right. What what we’re going to see as this case develops and the facts come out, it’s not just student protesters. It’s really outside the agitators, people who have much different agendas who are not what what they’re saying to the public is different what than what they actually believe. So when you hear them talk and they say we are calling for terrorist attacks on Jews, we’re calling for terrorist attacks on America, that’s not really coming from the students, that’s coming from the outside forces and and that’s what we’re going to develop. And and I think that’s true in other universities develop, you’re going to develop in discovery as this lawsuit progresses. This case is moving quickly. We have asked for immediate injunctive relief. The court has been what does injunctive relief look like? In this case, injunctive relief means restoring the campus to safety so that that all students can actually learn that they’re in the middle finals. And you’ve got, you know, you’ve got a system where certain students aren’t able to even go and take in person finals and other ones, you know, the radicalized ones, own the campus less. So now we’re glad the police finally came in. What do damages look like in a case like this? This case is not about money. This case about let’s restore some sort of order this in case we’re handling pro bono we are working with Columbia and our goal is just let let’s restore sanity to the world. Let’s have the adults in the room and let’s let our students come in there. Where do you land on the idea of free speech protests on university campuses and and the like and where the the red line is on everything else love free speech. I I think that there should be more debate about was was Israel was their reaction to the October 7th terrorist attacks. Was it proportional? Was it not What’s Egypt doing? They border on Gaza. Why aren’t they letting people in. Should we divest from Israel? Great discussions part of the especially in academic experience. What you can’t do though is incite violence and actually engage in violence and that’s what we’re seeing. We’re seeing Jewish kids are are being physically pushed off campus and they’re being told, from leaders, especially at Columbia, that that the goal is to actually kill Jews in America. That’s not free speech. When did Columbia’s administration go wrong? What was their first misstep? How have they not corrected since then? Great question. So let’s compare it to other schools like University of Florida, University of Florida. The second there started to be violent protests and illegality, they damn, they start suspending kids. Columbia has equivocated every two days. They’ve got a different view. It’s, you know, here’s our here’s our ultimatum. And then the ultimatum happens and then they go backwards. So even now they have, we appreciate they finally called the police in which they need to do. They should have done it weeks ago, but the question is are they going to hold strong or are they going to give into demands that they’re going to give the amnesty to some of these kids who are calling for violence on fellow students so that that’s where they went wrong. You got to be strong, decisive and clear otherwise otherwise you’re you’re just really furthering this. They are going to call it for amnesty. Is that the the expectation you have that they will say all these kids who they’ve suspended and expelled, forget it, you’re allowed to come back in. That’s absolutely what what the student groups are going to be asking for. And and we saw Barnard College lifted all the suspensions right away. It sends the worst message. If you, if we’re very clear to to the students on on our campuses nationwide, you’re allowed to. We want you to engage in free speech. You cannot threaten people. You cannot push people. You cannot attack people. If you do, you don’t get to be at one of the best universities in the world. You believe that Columbia’s president should remain Columbia’s president? Yes. Yeah. We’re not calling for the Columbia president to resign. What what we’re asking is that Columbia president does the right thing. Now, what about the professors who are on the payroll of Columbia that have been engaged with these students as part of these protests? Well, it depends if if if they’re engaged in free speech, then that’s fine. But what we’re hearing already is that a lot of professors are engaged in potentially retaliatory actions. You’ve got a lot of students that are worried that their grades are going to suffer. We’ve heard from one person who was getting an A in a class who somehow got a 0 on a test. That person happened to be Jewish. Those things have no part of the. What do you think is going on here meaning really, I mean I think, look, I’m Jewish. Yes. What do you think is going on here? Where do you think that this anti-Semitism has? Has it been here the whole time? Has it been under the surface? Is it, is it these agitators have have taken over the campus? Is it actually the students themselves? What do you think is really happening? So and that’s. I know it’s a big question. It is I was a philosophy major. That might be too big a question for me. My answer is that I’m surprised that the amount of anti-Semitism that’s been in in America, it caught me off guard. And you know the second you give people an excuse to to like really explain what they what their feelings are. I I was at Columbia the other day and the amount of venom they had to to Jewish people was really scary. Not all the protesters. A lot of protesters are totally fine. But it’s not. It’s not just anti-Semitism, it’s an anti American Yes, sentiment as well.