A Jewish UNLV student’s lawsuit claiming the university, state higher education system and a host of pro-Palestinian groups fostered an antisemitic environment has faced legal setbacks, including a move for sanctions filed at the start of August, but is still pending 15 months after being filed.

Corey Gerwaski, who frequently wears a Jewish skullcap called a kippah, filed the federal lawsuit last May, alleging pro-Palestinian groups on UNLV’s campus were violating federal anti-terrorism laws and operating as a de facto “propaganda wing” for Hamas by using similar rhetoric in calling for “resistance” and an end to “Israeli-occupation of Gaza” during protests at UNLV.

Gerwaski also claimed that he was unjustly terminated from his position at the UNLV library and received reduced pay for his elected student government role following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

In the complaint, Gerwaski said he faced an impeachment campaign through which his opponents spread false rumors across campus that he was racist and homophobic, and that his formal complaints to the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents about antisemitism he was facing went unanswered.

When the complaint was filed last year, the antisemitism claims rippled through the Las Vegas community, grabbing headlines at local newspapers and television stations alike.

Almost a year later in May 2025, District Court Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed anti-terrorism and emotional distress claims filed against two of the defendants, Students for Justice in Palestine at UNLV (SJP-UNLV) and Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP). The majority of claims brought against UNLV and the state’s higher education system were dismissed though a second, amended complaint was filed in June, reiterating surviving claims that UNLV violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and violated Gerwaski’s civil rights. 

AJP is a nonprofit, located in Falls Church, Virginia, that lobbies for Palestinian rights in Washington D.C.

Gordon dismissed the anti-terrorism claims, writing that Gerwaski failed to show that the Nevada-based advocacy groups aided and abetted Hamas in its attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. All actions detailed in Gerwaski’s complaint occurred after that date, the judge wrote.

Attorneys for Gerwaski alleged that AJP controls SJP-UNLV, which they argue allows Nevada courts to have jurisdiction over AJP. The complaint points to the similarity in social media posts as evidence but the district court judge disagreed in his order, writing that social media posts not targeted specifically at Nevada and UNLV were not enough to establish that the court had jurisdiction over AJP.

SJP-UNLV, a registered student organization with the stated goal of furthering “Palestinian justice and liberation” that is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada, has argued in responses to the lawsuit that its actions were constitutionally protected speech. ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said in an emailed statement that the lawsuit was an “unlawful attempt to use litigation to censor protected political speech.”

“It’s hard to imagine a more well established right than students engaging in protest,” he wrote.

Gerwaski, when reached by phone, declined to comment. 

Attorneys for Gerwaski, NSHE, UNLV and the Board of Regents did not respond to requests to comment.

Sanctions and complaints

After Gordon’s first order dismissing most of the claims, attorneys for AJP filed a motion seeking attorneys fees and costs estimated at $35,000, and requested an extra $10,000 in statutory penalties against Gerwaski for launching a “hopeless” complaint they said was “described to chill” protected speech. They made another motion for sanctions after Gerwaski’s attorneys filed the second complaint in June, describing it as “frivolous.”

The second complaint is largely a copy of the first, with additional background details on AJP and information about a June 2024 Board of Regents meeting during which then-Regent Donald McMichael told Jewish students concerned about antisemitism to “get in line.”

“There's others who have been here a lot longer and have been treated more poorly,” McMichael also said during the meeting.

Though the Board of Regents removed McMichael from its Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Committee, the complaint stated that response to his comments point to an ongoing “custom and practice of failing and/or refusing to discipline faculty, members, administrators and students.” 

Gerwaski’s initial attorneys on the case were Joey Gilbert, a Reno attorney who placed second in the state’s 2022 gubernatorial primary and unsuccessfully argued the primary was rigged, and Sigal Chattah, the state’s former Republican national committeewoman and currently the acting U.S. attorney for Nevada. 

Chattah withdrew from the case in April when she was appointed to serve as the interim U.S. attorney. Gilbert was replaced 19 days later with attorneys from Las Vegas law firm Chesnoff & Schonfeld.

Christina Jump, an attorney representing AJP, said the district court correctly dismissed AJP from the first complaint and AJP expects to be dismissed from the second complaint. 

Haseebullah also stated the second complaint is “equally deficient” as the first complaint and should be dismissed as well.

Gordon’s order did not dismiss discrimination claims brought against the university, allowing Gerwaski to present more evidence proving there was an ongoing violation of his civil rights. 

As of Aug. 7, UNLV and the Board of Regents have not yet filed a response to the second complaint.