Two UTD professors, arrested last spring while standing with students at a peaceful pro-Palestinian encampment, are now suing the university, the UT System, Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials, alleging an ongoing campaign to violate their constitutional rights and punish them for their speech and actions.
The Muslim Legal Fund of America filed the federal lawsuit today on behalf of history professors Ben Wright and Rosemary Admiral. The suit alleges that despite breaking no laws and acting within the confines of all relevant university policy at the time, Wright and Admiral have experienced physical, emotional and professional harm as a result of the university’s treatment of them during and after their arrests.
Wright is a tenured associate professor of history at UTD who has been with the university since 2015. Specializing in American history, his courses cover topics like the history of American religion, slavery in the U.S., the Civil War and Reconstruction. Wright said his current research has brought over $100,000 worth of external grants to UTD in recent years.
Admiral is a tenure-track assistant professor of history who has been at the university since 2018. Specializing in the Middle East, her courses cover topics like Middle Eastern women’s history, the medieval Islamic world and the history of Islamic law. Admiral has previously participated in a Fulbright fellowship for research in Morocco. She said her next study abroad program was cancelled by UTD after her arrest.
The Retrograde reached out to UTD for comment and has not received a response as of publication.
The suit
The 29-page lawsuit, filed in the federal U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, outlines in detail the professors’ grievances — including their violent treatment on May 1, a severe lack of communication from university administration, broad restrictions on their campus life following the arrests and damage to their reputations from what the plaintiffs, Wright and Admiral, allege are knowingly false statements made by university and state officials. The complaint marks the first step of litigation, which the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression says could be a much longer process.
“When the students expressed fear at seeing a wall of law enforcement in riot gear coming toward their peaceful protest, our clients stood for the students and peacefully attempted to communicate,” MLFA Civil Litigation Department Head Christina Jump said in a press release regarding the suit. “But Texas had ordered the opposite and wanted nothing to do with communication. Officials arrested these professors — who broke no laws — then unjustly interfered with their employment. These professors deserve our respect. Texas officials failed them. We hope the courts will not.”
The professors are asking the court to remove the unlawful restrictions imposed on them by the state and university policy, as well as compensation for the damages they have endured.
After their arrests, Wright and Admiral were released from Collin County Jail on the condition that they would be barred from UTD’s campus except for teaching classes or engaging in “employment/research related activities.” Wright said UTD did not provide clarification about what these conditions meant, and that he and his arrested colleagues were extremely limited in their activities. Admiral said that when she attempted to visit her office, she was told she could not do so unless she was accompanied by members of UTDPD.
Admiral also said she was provided an illegible copy of her court-ordered bond conditions and that she only saw the legible conditions after The Retrograde published over 2,000 pages of public records relating to the arrests — which included her bond conditions — eight months later. Jump said the original letter given to Admiral seems to be in Wingdings or some other unreadable script.
Muslim Legal Fund of America | Courtesy
The suit presents five legal claims against UTD and Texas. The first claim is that the defendants violated Wright and Admiral’s employment contracts illegally based on race and national origin. The suit says that protections from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 encompass Palestinian identity and Muslim religious identity, and that Admiral could be visibly identified as Muslim and Wright was a “visible ally.” The second legal claim builds upon this with a focus on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act; it says that as a recipient of federal funds, UTD is required to prevent discrimination based on race, color or national origin, but failed to do so in its treatment of the arrested professors.
The third legal claim focuses on the Fourth Amendment and the protections it provides against unreasonable seizures. The case states that no individualized probable cause existed to arrest Wright or Admiral, and that, by bringing police onto UTD’s campus, the defendants caused the professors to suffer degrading treatment and intimidation simply because of the opinions they chose to express.
The fourth claim concerns First Amendment violations — the suit says Admiral and Wright were acting in their individual capacities when they engaged in the peaceful encampment and when they stood between the encampment and encroaching law enforcement prior to their arrests. The fifth claim, also related to the First Amendment, focuses on the retaliation the professors have faced since their arrest. The lawsuit focuses on the bans from campus, restricted access to on-campus offices and the looming threat of further discipline the professors experienced.
The defendants named in this lawsuit are former UTD president Richard Benson, current president Prabhas Moghe, UTD, the UT System, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Benson is sued as an individual while the rest are named in their official capacity.
Photo by Retrograde Staff.
The arrest
On May 1, 2024, 21 faculty, students, alumni and community members were arrested for their involvement in campus protests calling for UTD’s divestment from weapons manufacturers and for the liberation of Palestine. Wright and Admiral were among those arrested, spending the night in Collin County Jail alongside arrested students.
During the May 1 protests, Wright and Admiral intermingled with students in Chess Plaza. According to the lawsuit, Wright engaged protesters in dialogue and held a peaceful read-in. Admiral joined in prayer with students she recognized. When law enforcement arrived at Chess Plaza, Wright attempted to deescalate tensions by standing between police and students. At no point did either professor call for violence.
“I saw the police lines coming and, and that’s when I started getting much more concerned for the safety of my students,” Admiral said. “The arrest was really a shock to the system … to be put in that position where you are not even a person anymore. It’s like you’re stripped of your humanity, you’re just a number, you have to do what you’re told.”
The professors expressed their pain both during and following their arrests. In D Magazine, Wright reflected on the sweltering heat and mistreatment he faced during his arrest. In Inside Higher Ed, Admiral questioned her ability to serve a university that actively wants to arrest her.
Former UTD president Richard Benson responded in an op-ed published in he Dallas Morning News, claiming that no one was arrested for protesting but instead for criminal trespass after refusing to dismantle and leave the encampment.
Jump wrote in the press release that the statements made by UTD and Texas about the arrests “presumed guilt, when ultimately there wasn’t even enough to proceed with charges.”
“It absolutely had no basis and put them in a situation they should never have had to endure,” Jump said.
The aftermath
Photo by Alexander Lawless | Retrograde Staff
The lawsuit alleges that UTD imposed discriminatory restrictions upon Wright and Admiral not required by the court. For example, the suit describes how the professors were required to provide written approval from administrators to continue teaching on campus.
Another major example discussed in the suit is UTD canceling Admiral’s study abroad program, scheduled for the upcoming year, under the justification she did not complete her third-year review. The suit says she successfully completed the review in 2020. This cancellation caused her “direct financial as well as reputational harm.”
After arrest, the next step in the criminal process is a grand jury deciding whether or not there is sufficient evidence to press charges. If the jury believes there is sufficient evidence, it indicts the arrestee. A criminal trial begins once there has been an indictment. The legal process for the 21 arrestees has been stretched out for over a year, with 14 of the 21 arrested indicted April 24, 2025, a week shy of 12 months after the original arrests.
University officials said in meetings of UTD’s Academic Senate that they would not intervene in the legal process, such as by dropping the charges or seeking to expedite indictment hearings, because they wanted to wait and see how things turned out.
Photo by Retrograde Staff.
“The cloud that Texas held over everyone arrested by not deciding for a year later made it difficult for them to move forward if they didn’t have the long shadow of potential criminal charges against them,” Jump said in the press release.
A nationwide epidemic
Photo by Retrograde Staff.
On Aug. 3 this year, another faculty member arrested during last year’s encampment — art history professor Ali Asgar Alibhai — filed a similar lawsuit against university officials and local law enforcement. The suit claims Alibhai was arrested without probable cause and that following his arrest, UTD violated his constitutional rights and subjected him to discrimination for being a South Asian Muslim. With the filing of Wright and Admiral’s lawsuit, all faculty arrested during the encampment are now suing UTD.
Other professors have similarly filed suits claiming discrimination across the nation. On Mar. 25, the American Association of University Professors sued the Trump administration for targeting international students at pro-Palestine protests at universities such as Harvard University, New York University and Rutgers University. On Sept. 30, a district court ruled in favor of the AAUP.
Zach Greenberg, faculty legal defense counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that faculty and students have the First Amendment right to protest in the open outdoor areas of their campuses. However, various universities failed to adhere to this standard during last year’s wave of pro-Palestine and other political protests.
“On one hand, the professors have the right to protest,” Greenberg said. “But almost every university has some rules surrounding students sleeping outside, setting up fixed structures and provisions for punishing these violations. If they are specific time and manner rules then they are usually O.K. under the First Amendment.”
Greenberg said Texas is unique in that, after the wave of protests, the state legislature passed sweeping reforms to the state’s education code which severely restricted when and how students can express themselves. These restrictions include Senate Bill 2972, which dictates a ban on expressive activity from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., as well as using sound amplifying devices and bringing guest speakers to campus during the last two weeks of each academic term. FIRE is currently challenging this law and has succeeded in blocking the law’s enforcement within the UT System earlier this month.
Greenberg said that the best thing faculty and students who want to protect their rights can do is know their rights and understand the limits of the First Amendment.
“When faculty are unjustly punished, they should fight it,” Greenberg said. “They should go through the university’s dispute and appeal channels. They should hire an attorney, which FIRE can help them get in contact with, and they should defend their constitutional rights.”
A complicated commitment
Both Wright and Admiral said they have a deep love for Texas, for UTD and for the students they work to educate every day. Wright said that the moment he was released from jail, after over 20 hours of detainment, he came directly to UTD so that could teach his students in their final class of the spring 2024 semester.
“In some ways, I am more committed to UTD today than I’ve ever been before, because, frankly, I see the urgency of how important it is that we have faculty who love students and who are committed to real education,” Wright said. “Who are willing to make the sacrifices that it takes to make a university a place of learning and not oppression.”
The professors said the goal of this lawsuit isn’t simply monetary reward for the pain they had endured, but to make sure that what they went through does not happen again. Admiral said that throughout the entire process, UTD has had multiple chances to support its community, now consumed by fear, and to support its faculty arrested for standing between law enforcement and students — but university officials have ignored each opportunity.
“My biggest hope is just to hold the university accountable for what it did to us and others that day,” Admiral said. “To begin correcting the impact it had on the campus climate … At any point, the university could have taken some responsibility and could have done the right thing and they didn’t.”
Wright said that as a historian, he believes legal records like the lawsuit, even if the case gets dismissed, will be incredibly important to future scholars because the case itself, the evidence gathered for it and the statements made for it will all create a comprehensive record of fact.
“As a historian, I know there is going to come a time where UTD is going to celebrate the courageous protesters on May 1,” Wright said. “There’s also going to come a time where the university apologetically admits that it acted poorly and even illegally. This is what happens when protests are crushed, is that they’re vilified in the moment and then eventually they’re recognized as being courageous and heroic.”
This is a breaking news story. The Retrograde will provide more details as new information emerges.