What Columbia Riot Decision Gets Wrong About Civil Rights

In April 2024, two men went to work at Columbia University. They were surrounded by masked rioters, punched, barricaded inside the school’s Hamilton Hall, called “Jew-lovers,” and physically prevented from leaving. They eventually escaped, but they did not recover. They lost their janitorial jobs, and they remain on workers’ compensation. And yet a federal court just told them that none of this adds up to a civil rights violation.

Judge Colleen McMahon’s decision dismissing the Section 1985(3) claims of Mariano Torres and Lester Wilson in Torres v. Carlson is carefully reasoned but wrong in several important respects.

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About the Author

Mark Goldfeder

Mark Goldfeder is CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center and a law professor at Touro Law School.

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In April 2024, two men went to work at Columbia University. They were surrounded by masked rioters, punched, barricaded inside the school’s Hamilton Hall, called “Jew-lovers,” and physically prevented from leaving. They eventually escaped, but they did not recover. They lost their janitorial jobs, and they remain on workers’ compensation. And yet a federal court just told them that none of this adds up to a civil rights violation.

Judge Colleen McMahon’s decision dismissing the Section 1985(3) claims of Mariano Torres and Lester Wilson in Torres v. Carlson is carefully reasoned but wrong in several important respects.