Um, I know our legal system isn't perfect, but the outcome of a court case is still largely decided by, you know, actual laws and facts. You can't just throw money at some lawyers and assume you get to "defeat" whoever you want.

I totally agree with the position that for-profit journals are bad for the research community, but is there any doubt that legally they have the right to charge universities for the content that they own the rights to?

It is the researchers who are downloading papers, not the universities.

Perhaps the universities should really look over the submitter contracts and see if they can directly grant open access to the university’s own past submissions. Some sort of collective group could help them share the cost of that legal analysis.