Nearly two dozen anti-Israel students arrested for violently occupying a Columbia University building in 2024 just dodged the sanctions slapped on them by the school thanks to a new court ruling.
The New York Supreme Court found that the Ivy League institution improperly used sealed arrest records as the basis for handing out suspensions, expulsions and degree revocations to the students, who participated in the dangerous chaotic takeover of Hamilton Hall, during which two janitors were assaulted and held captive.
Justice Gerald Lebovits, a Democrat, said in a ruling that the punishments the university handed down were “arbitrary and capricious” and that the students’ arrest records only proved that they were physically inside Hamilton Hall during the occupation.
An anti-Israel mob violently takes over Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall in April 2024. Getty Images “The record did not, however, contain evidence that [students] themselves acted to endanger Hamilton Hall or University property within Hamilton,” he wrote.
A Columbia rep told The Post that the university is reviewing the ruling and weighing its response.
“The order does not take effect for at least 30 days, and no student who was disciplined for the occupation of Hamilton Hall can return to campus at this time,’’ the representative said.
“Columbia is considering all of its options, including seeking a stay of the order and appealing the decision.”
Dozens of people were arrested in connection to the melee, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office dismissed charges against 31 of the 46 arrested and ordered their records sealed, citing lack of evidence.
The dismissals quickly drew fury from rank-and-file NYPD officers, higher-education officials and Jewish leaders who told The Post the dismissals were nothing more than “turnstile justice.”
New York State Supreme Court justice Gerald Lebovits, a Democrat, said in a ruling that the punishments the university handed down over the outrageous violence were “arbitrary and capricious.” Handout During the agitators’ 22-hour takeover April 30, 2024, the mob — many of them clad in keffiyehs and masks — barricaded themselves inside the library, smashed windows and hung a banner reading “Intifada” from a second-story window.
The NYPD eventually ended the escalating standoff by flooding into the building and arresting dozens of protesters in a dramatic scene.
When the smoke cleared, Columbia, under threat of having $400 million in federal funds yanked by the Trump administration for its failure to curb antisemitic activity on campus, handed down lengthy suspensions and other punishments to more than 70 students more than a year after the takeover.
Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Among the students whose expulsions were just reversed by the court was Aidan Parisi, the son of longtime State Department officer Elizabeth Daugharty, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Parisi, in addition to being part of the mob that sieged Hamilton Hall, was one of the leaders of the illegal encampment protest that took over the Morningside Heights campus in the spring of 2024.
He was suspended after being involved in a campus event organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which just this week posted, “Death to America” in Persian after the US launched airstrikes against Iran.
After his suspension, he refused to vacate his school-provided housing for weeks, telling the New York Times that finding new housing that would accept his “emotional support rabbit” would be challenging.
The court’s clemency was also extended to Grant Miner, a Columbia student and president of the university’s graduate student union, who was also expelled last March for his involvement in leading the takeover of Hamilton Hall.
He’s the son of veteran California lobbyist and former Arnold Schwarzenegger aide Paul Miner and was a leading organizer in setting up the so-called “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the school’s East Butler Lawn in April 2024, according to a lawsuit filed last April by the two janitors assaulted by the marauding occupiers.
