Anna Feder worked at Emerson College in Boston for 17 years. For 12 of them, she ran the school’s exhibitions and festivals program and curated the Bright Lights Cinema Series, which screened documentaries about liberation struggles, social justice, and marginalized communities.

According to a civil lawsuit filed by Feder against the college this week, the school administration never interfered with her programming until 2023, when she scheduled a screening of the film “Israelism,” a documentary by Jewish filmmakers about young American Jews coming to reject Zionism. Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Emerson leadership pressured Feder to cancel the planned November screening.

Feder agreed to postpone and screened the film in February 2024. She then wrote an op-ed in the school paper criticizing Emerson’s treatment of campus speech about Palestine. And even as a crackdown across the U.S. on all things pro-Palestine got underway, she continued a longtime partnership with the Boston Palestine Film Festival.

Then, in August, Emerson abruptly ditched Feder and her program.

“Emerson terminated Ms. Feder, cancelled the entire Bright Lights program, and barred Ms. Feder from campus,” her lawsuit says.

“We all need to find the courage in this moment and push back against the attacks on speech.”

Feder’s suit is the first of its kind in this time of campus repression. Filed in Massachusetts state court, the suit claims that Emerson violated Feder’s free speech rights and that, while it is a private college, it is nonetheless obligated to uphold First Amendment protections.

Private institutions are not as a matter of course subject to the First Amendment, which protects against government violations. Private colleges are, on the whole, permitted to enact greater restrictions on speech on their premises than public institutions.

Feder’s suit, however, claims that a Massachusetts law, Article 16 of the state’s Declaration of Rights, extends First Amendment protections usually applied to government violations of civil rights to private actors, too — including universities and colleges. (Emerson did not respond to a request for comment about the suit.)

The suit against Emerson is a test case. If successful, Feder’s effort could set a precedent for holding Massachusetts colleges — of which there are many — to legal account for constitutional violations of free speech. A minority of other states, including California, have similar statutes on the books, which could be deployed in a similar vein.

More broadly, Feder’s suit exemplifies ways those facing apparent retribution for pro-Palestine speech on campus have had to seek new ways to contest their school’s........

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