What started as a seven second protest clip has turned into a multimillion dollar courtroom fight. Portland State University professor Yasmeen Hanoosh is suing the school for $7 million, alleging PSU publicly smeared her over a viral video and then retaliated when the controversy blew up. Her complaint says the short off campus protest clip was edited, stripped of context and weaponized against her, triggering threats and serious damage to her reputation just as the university pursues deep program and staff cuts that her lawyers argue make the fallout even worse.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, names PSU and President Ann Cudd as defendants and alleges discrimination, retaliation, a hostile work environment, violations of free speech and equal protection rights, and defamation. According to OPB, the complaint asks a judge to order the university to remove or correct any public statements that linked Hanoosh to terrorism or antisemitic ideology. Her attorneys say the remark captured in the clip was meant sarcastically, was pulled out of context and, once it spread online, led to harassment and threats that they argue derailed her career prospects.
What the Lawsuit Says
The complaint describes a roughly 10 month internal investigation that Hanoosh’s legal team says ultimately found she had not violated PSU policies, yet still characterized her remarks in ways they call biased and damaging. As reported by Willamette Week, the filing claims PSU gave Hanoosh only 20 minutes to review a privileged investigative report, shut her out of discussions about layoff choices while she was on leave and departed from its usual selection process when her position ended up on the chopping block. The suit seeks money damages, punitive damages and a court order requiring PSU to retract or correct its public statements about the episode.
University Response and Budget Cuts
President Ann Cudd publicly blasted the brief video as “absolutely unacceptable” in a June 6 post on the university president’s blog and said the faculty member involved had been placed on administrative leave; that message appears on a Portland State University blog page. Hanoosh has taught in PSU’s World Languages and Literatures department since 2010 and received tenure in 2016, according to Portland State University. This month, she learned her tenured job is among more than 50 positions PSU plans to cut as part of an academic restructuring. Reporting by OPB shows the university is targeting reductions across World Languages and other departments while trying to close a budget gap of about $35 million.
Legal Context and Next Steps
The complaint lays out a mix of constitutional and state law claims, including discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment violations, and defamation, which Hanoosh’s lawyers argue together justify both financial damages and injunctive relief, according to Willamette Week. The case lands as federal officials are already looking over PSU’s shoulder; the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights put Portland State on a March list of 60 colleges and universities under Title VI review for alleged antisemitic harassment and discrimination, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The Multnomah County court is expected to set a schedule for motions and hearings, and the litigation could stretch for months as both sides move through discovery and any potential settlement talks.
