UTD professor files lawsuit against university, local law enforcement over 2024 arrest, discrimination

Assistant professor of art history Ali Asgar Alibhai filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Aug. 3 against university officials and local law enforcement, claiming his constitutional rights were violated and he was discriminated against as a South Asian Muslim following his arrest in May last year.

The arrest occurred during law enforcement’s raid of the “Gaza Liberation Plaza” student encampment constructed on UTD’s campus May 1. In the suit, Alibhai states that as he was walking across campus, he saw peaceful students facing off against a militarized police force. The legal case covers Alibhai’s arrest and the alleged retaliation and discrimination he suffered during the following year, as well as previous experiences of discrimination on campus.

Coverage of the encampment by former student newspaper The Mercury reported law enforcement brought assault rifles, shotguns and grenade launchers to stop the protest and arrested 21 individuals. In April this year, a Collin County grand jury no-billed the charges of trespass UTD held against Alibhai, meaning he will not be prosecuted for any crime. Fourteen other individuals from the 21 arrestees were indicted and are currently facing charges for obstruction of a passageway. 

The suit states Alibhai asked the officers to remain calm and repeated the phrase “they are just kids.” Moments after he began to speak, Alibhai was arrested by members of the Collin County Sheriff’s department, UTDPD and Texas State Troopers. Alibhai said that at no point did he threaten or obstruct the officers. In an Aug. 4 press release, Justin Moore, lead attorney on the lawsuit, said Alibhai was “violently arrested without warning, without a dispersal order and without probable cause.” 

Alibhai said that after his arrest, he was forced into inhumane conditions while awaiting transport to Collin County Jail and was threatened and lacerated by officers while in custody. 

Former UTD president Richard Benson is named as one of the defendants in the case for his oversight of the campus and its actions on May 1, as well as statements he made in a Dallas Morning News op-ed and in Academic Senate meetings following the arrests, which Alibhai alleges amount to defamation and libel. 

BAHT dean Nils Roemer and Provost Inga Musselman are also named as defendants for allegedly restricting Alibhai’s employment and academic opportunities through how they treated him post-arrest. Alibhai, who has been a UTD professor since 2019 and a tenure-track professor since fall 2022, said he has been denied full participation in the academic life of the university and remains under an informal sanction because of Roemer’s and Musselman’s restrictions. 

The suit also states that Alibhai’s experience has been more restrictive and punitive than that of his white colleagues who were also arrested May 1, amounting to discrimination against his South Asian and Muslim identities.

The suit presents eight counts against UTD for the violation of Alibhai’s constitutional rights, retaliation and disparate discriminatory treatment against him under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and his unlawful and excessive arrest. Alibhai is seeking compensatory damages for mental anguish, back pay and attorney fees.

The Retrograde reached out to UTD for comment on the case. An official spokesperson provided the following statement: “Dr. Ali Asgar H. Alibhai is currently employed as an assistant professor at UT Dallas. However, the University has not been notified of a lawsuit at this time.”

“This is not just about a single arrest,” Moore said. “It’s about an institution using its power to silence dissent and marginalize those it finds inconvenient.”