Federal judge dismisses lawsuit by ex-U of M DEI official fired after antisemitism dispute

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a former University of Michigan diversity official who claimed she was unfairly fired after a disagreement about antisemitism on campus.

U.S. District Judge Shalina D. Kumar dismissed the case brought by Rachel Dawson, according to a judgment entered July 28, 2026, in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan.

The court's judgment says only that the university's request to dismiss the case was granted, without spelling out the judge's reasoning in that document.

Dawson, who is Black, worked at the University of Michigan for years, most recently as the director of the university's Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, before she was fired in December 2024, according to court documents.

According to her lawsuit, the trouble started in March 2024 at a conference, where two other attendees asked Dawson about antisemitism at U-M. Dawson said she told them she believed the university was working hard to fight antisemitism and other kinds of bias. The conversation grew tense, her lawsuit says, when the women pushed her on her views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The two women later reported Dawson to the Anti-Defamation League, claiming she had made antisemitic comments — allegations Dawson denied. The university hired an outside law firm to investigate. That firm's report said the evidence supported the claims against her, even though it admitted it couldn't say for certain what was actually said, according to the lawsuit.

Dawson's own supervisor pushed back on that conclusion, according to the suit, saying the evidence didn't clearly support anyone's version of events.

The lawsuit also claims that a University of Michigan regent, Mark Bernstein, wrote to top university officials saying he was "disgusted" and that firing Dawson was the only acceptable outcome. Days later, according to the complaint, the university reversed an earlier warning it had given Dawson and moved to fire her instead.

Dawson sued the university's governing board, arguing she was discriminated against because of her race and gender, and that she was fired in retaliation for speaking up about bias. She was seeking damages and a jury trial.

CBS News Detroit has reached out to Dawson's legal representation as well as U-M's and are awaiting response.