Three current professors sue Emory University over April 2024 arrests at campus protest

Two years after pro-Palestine protests rocked Emory University’s campus, three professors filed a complaint against the institution, alleging wrongful arrests and prosecution, negligence and a breach of free expression policies by the university. 

In April 2024, Emory University Police Department officers arrested professors Noelle McAfee, Emil’ Keme and Caroline Fohlin during a protest on the university’s quadrangle, along with 28 other individuals. The green space sits at the center of Emory’s campus and was the epicenter of the April 2024 protests. 

Police charged McAfee and Keme with disorderly conduct and Fohlin with the battery of a law enforcement officer, but these charges were all dropped by September 2025. 

The April protests at Emory were among the hundreds of demonstrations across the United States that followed the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. Tensions were high as students established encampments at some campuses, most notably Columbia University, in solidarity with war-ravaged Gaza. 

Along with allegedly prolonging the prosecution of “false” charges, the complaint argues Emory violated its own free expression policy when the university called the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol onto campus to shut down the peaceful demonstration. 

The civil lawsuit against Emory, which was filed Thursday in DeKalb County Superior Court, asks for the university to award damages to the professors.   

In a press statement, Emory University spokesperson Laura Diamond wrote that the institution believed the accusations are “without merit.”

“Emory acts appropriately and responsibly to keep our community safe from threats of harm,” Diamond wrote. “We regret this issue is being litigated but we have confidence in the legal process.”

All three professors said they were arrested while helping their colleagues and students stay safe from police action, according to the complaint. McAfee and Fohlin were each filmed and went viral online for their arrests.

The complaint also argues that Fohlin was falsely accused of striking a police officer and has sustained lasting injuries from her arrest when she was thrown to the ground during a “violent takedown.”  

Nationwide, other students and faculty have filed lawsuits against their universities for mistreatment in spring 2024, including a February 2025 case against the University of Michigan for banning protestors from campus. But McAfee, Keme and Fohlin all remain tenured at Emory, making this lawsuit against their current employer. 

Since her arrest, McAfee has spoken out against the private university’s neglect of their free expression policy in her role as the president of the Emory University Senate, the shared governance body that advises administrators on university affairs. McAfee and other community members have accused Emory of violating their policy multiple times since her arrest.

“Despite what happened in 2024, I remain dedicated to my students, my colleagues, and our mission,” Fohlin said. “I have high hopes that the University can recommit itself to its stated purpose: to create, preserve, teach, and apply knowledge in the service of humanity.”

 The professors are represented by Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre and Funt, a Georgia-based personal injury firm that includes four Emory alumni as partners.