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The U.S. Justice Department has launched a lawsuit against the University of California, claiming that UCLA did not adequately shield Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment during intense pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus in 2023 and 2024.
This legal action, initiated on Tuesday in California, marks a significant move in the Trump administration’s efforts to hold major universities accountable for what it perceives as a lax stance on antisemitism. The lawsuit accuses UCLA of not taking sufficient disciplinary measures against protesters, including numerous individuals who were arrested in 2024 for refusing to leave a protest site on campus.
A representative for the University of California directed inquiries to UCLA, which has not yet provided a response to requests for comment.
Previously, officials under the Trump administration concluded that UCLA failed in safeguarding Jewish students, resulting in a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor last year. However, the new lawsuit contends that the impact on Jewish and Israeli staff members is far more extensive than what the previous settlement addressed.
The lawsuit asserts, “The United States will now take action where UC has not: ensuring protection for Jewish and Israeli employees” against antisemitic harassment.
“UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified Jewish and Israeli employees,” the Justice Department alleges in its 81-page lawsuit.
Much of the complaint focuses on the 2024 protest encampment that federal officials say blocked Jewish employees and students from parts of campus and included antisemitic signs and chants. One night, counterprotesters attacked the encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.
The lawsuit alleges UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the encampment and accuses the university of failing to discipline any students, faculty or staff over antisemitic behavior.
The suit asks a judge to force UCLA to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies and to “award damages,” without specifying an amount, to Jewish employees at UCLA who faced a hostile work environment.
The Trump administration has primarily focused on elite private universities in its campaign to win obedience from campuses it accuses of liberal and antisemitic bias. UCLA is one of the few public universities targeted in that effort.
Last summer the Trump administration said it was seeking $1 billion from UCLA as part of a settlement to end federal scrutiny. Trump officials had cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from the university, though a federal judge ordered the money to be restored in September. ___ Gecker reported from San Francisco.
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