A Northwestern University journalism professor is suing the university and four federal officials, alleging his tenure denial and scheduled termination stem from retaliation for his pro-Palestinian activism on the Evanston campus.
Steven Thrasher, a Medill School of Journalism professor and the university's inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of Social Justice in Reporting, filed the lawsuit July 14 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. His employment at Northwestern is scheduled to end in August.
The 12-count complaint names Northwestern alongside Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Rep. Tim Walberg, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee. The suit alleges First Amendment retaliation, breach of contract, and discrimination based on Thrasher's race, sexual orientation, and association with Palestinians, according to Inside Higher Ed.
What led to the lawsuit
Northwestern hired Thrasher in 2019. In spring 2024, according to the lawsuit, he attempted to block police from dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. He was subsequently suspended from teaching and faced a criminal complaint.
Rep. Walberg's committee wrote to then-Northwestern President Michael Schill in 2024, criticizing him for refusing to say whether Thrasher was still teaching after he allegedly "scuffled with and obstructed Northwestern University Police Department officers," Inside Higher Ed reported.
Medill Dean Charles Whitaker informed Thrasher in March 2025 that he was denied tenure based on an 8-8 vote by the school's Promotion and Tenure Committee, the lawsuit states. The university later refused him access to a full internal appeal of that decision, according to the complaint.
Tenure is a form of long-term job protection that, once granted, makes it very difficult for a university to fire a professor. A denial typically means the professor must leave.
How federal pressure fits in
The lawsuit ties Thrasher's case to Northwestern's $75 million settlement with the Trump administration in November 2025. That deal restored approximately $790 million in frozen federal research funding but required the university to mandate antisemitism training for all students, faculty, and staff, and to reverse a 2024 agreement made with pro-Palestinian student protesters, according to Inside Higher Ed's reporting on the settlement.
Thrasher's attorneys allege in the complaint that "Defendants robbed Dr. Thrasher of his successful academic career and livelihood because of a joint project of Northwestern and elements of the federal government to manufacture consent for their participation in the Zionist colonial project in Palestine."
Thrasher is asking the court to reinstate him to a tenure-track position or award him pay and benefits equal to what he would have earned over the course of his career. He also wants the court to invalidate portions of the November 2025 settlement that he argues suppress campus speech on Palestine, and to bar the government defendants from pressuring Northwestern to suspend or terminate faculty.
University response
Northwestern said it does not comment on pending litigation. The federal defendants did not respond to requests for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
No next court date or hearing has been announced.
