Breaking News illustration. (Isabella Hammond/CU Independent)
Dhillon Law Group, a national firm known for representing Donald Trump and Elon Musk, filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Colorado Boulder and its various officials, including the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance.
The suit, filed on Feb. 5, accuses the university of suppressing the free speech of undergraduate student Zoe Johnson.
It argues that university officials violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments when they met with Johnson to discuss complaints from her classmates surrounding comments she made about race and the LGBTQ+ community during choir practices.
The suit also alleges that CU’s nondiscrimination policy “violates the first amendment” and seeks to bar the university from enforcing it.
The policy, which prohibits discrimination and harassment based on protected-class identity, applies to students and staff.
According to the lawsuit, several students have reported Johnson to faculty since 2022 for at least three instances of unwelcome comments.
In September 2022, Johnson told a choir member, “I don’t care about your identity, I care more about what you have to say as a person, more than how you look.” Another student overheard the comment and complained to the choir director that the comment was discriminatory towards people of color.
In October 2024, following a lesson on LGBTQ history in the choir class, Johnson allegedly said, “Why do we need two months of this? Didn’t we do this back in June?” Multiple students reported her comment to the choir director. Later that same month, the lawsuit claims a choir member reported Johnson for asking why one of the other members was wearing a durag.
In October, the choir director requested to meet with Johnson to discuss the complaints.
According to email chains found in the lawsuit, Johnson refused and accused the director of “harassment”.
After that, the director passed the reports on to CU’s compliance office, OIEC, which contacted Johnson and asked to meet and discuss the incidents from her perspective.
When Johnson asked what the penalty for refusing to attend would be, the compliance office informed her that her school account could potentially be put on hold, meaning she could not register for new classes.
In addition to requesting that the university no longer enforce its discrimination policy, the suit is asking for monetary relief for Johnson’s “emotional and academic harm.”
In a social media post, lead attorney Matt Sarelson calls the students who reported Johnson “childish and petty” and said “we want to stop the illegal discriminatory practice of DEI at the University of Colorado”.
The lawsuit is being supported by the Young America’s Foundation, a youth conservative organization that serves on the advisory board for Project 2025.
Johnson is a member of Young Americans for freedom, a subgroup of the Young America’s Foundation which seeks to “advance conservative ideas and traditional values” at college campuses across the country.
According to CU Boulder Spokesperson Nicole Mueksch, the university is reviewing the lawsuit.
“As this lawsuit has recently been served, the campus must review it and determine the appropriate course of action. As such, we are unable to comment further at this time,” she said.
Contact CU Independent News Editor Greta Kerkhoff at Greta.kerkhoff@colorado.edu
