Lawyers for the University of Michigan and its Board of Regents argue they are immune from lawsuits filed by two women claiming their data was hacked by former co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, per the Detroit News. The former Michigan football staffer was indicted on 24 total counts of unauthorized access to computers and aggravated identity theft back in March.
Weiss has been accused of downloading the personal information of thousands of student-athletes, primarily female, which he used to access their personal social media and cloud storage accounts. Lawyers representing the women suing the school argue that Michigan must provide information about how their data was breached by Weiss.
The attorneys representing Michigan, Daniel Tukel and Sheldon Klein, say the school has governmental immunity, which limits lawsuits against federal institutions under the 11th Amendment.
Tukel and Klein also argue that there is no evidence the data breach has not created “ongoing or future harm” for the women.
“There is no claim that plaintiffs have had banking, credit or other similar issues during the more than two years after Weiss was discharged and the notification letter was received,” the lawyers wrote in the filing, per The Detroit News.
Parker Stinar, a lawyer for the women, argues that immunity does not protect Michigan in an instance where one of its employees violates the privacy of “thousands” of student-athletes.
“It is not a shield for institutions that knowingly empower or fail to supervise employees who violate the trust and privacy of thousands of current and former female student-athletes,” Stinar wrote. “The university’s attempt to sidestep accountability by hiding behind legal technicalities speaks volumes about its priorities — and none of them center student safety or justice.”
Federal investigators seize thousands of ‘intimate images’ during probe into ex-Michigan assistant Matt Weiss
Shehan Jeyarajah
In its indictment of Weiss, the United States Department of Justice claimed the former Michigan assistant gained unauthorized access to databases containing information about student-athletes at more than 100 universities. The indictment also accuses Weiss of downloading personal information on 150,000 athletes, which he used to hack into social media, email and cloud storage accounts of 2,000 athletes.
Weiss was the Michigan quarterbacks coach under Jim Harbaugh in 2021, and he was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2022.
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