DALLAS – The family of a Texas teenager who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school that was mistaken for a bomb has hired two Dallas attorneys to pursue his legal rights, a representative for the two said on Wednesday.

The case of Ahmed Mohamed, 14, a Muslim student who dabbles in robotics and attended a Dallas-area high school, touched off a social media firestorm with many saying he was arrested because of his religion.

The teen’s family hired Thomas Bowers and Reggie London on his behalf, saying the ninth grader’s civil and legal rights have been compromised, Universal Media Group said in a statement.

Bowers was the lawyer for an exotic dancer who tried to sue Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for $1 million for sexual assault in a case that was dismissed last year. Attorneys for Jones denied any wrongdoing on his part and described the case as an attempted “money grab.”

“The family wants justice and to ensure no family will ever have to experience what Ahmed went through again,” the media group for the lawyers said.

The bespectacled teen with a penchant for NASA T-shirts has won support from President Obama who invited him to the White House for an astronomy night, and Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg who said “having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest.”

He has withdrawn from the school district that suspended him for what it saw as a bomb hoax. The clock is in the possession of police in the Dallas suburb of Irving.