Trump administration sues UC, alleges anti-semitic environment at UCLA

The Trump administration on Tuesday sued the University of California, alleging in federal court that university officials were “deliberately indifferent” to discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students at UCLA in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

The U.S. Department of Justice contends that antisemitism reached a point where students were physically assaulted, injured, excluded from campus, and deprived of educational opportunities because of their perceived Jewish or Israeli heritage, the suit says.

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UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk disputed the DOJ’s allegations in an emailed statement Tuesday.

“Let me be direct: the suggestion that UCLA has been passive in the face of antisemitism is simply wrong,” said Frenk, whose Jewish grandparents fled Nazi Germany. “Combating antisemitism is a moral imperative — one rooted, for me, in personal history that makes indifference unthinkable.”

Frenk said the university has taken steps to fight antisemitism, including reorganizing its civil rights office, appointing a Title VI officer and recruiting an official focused on campus safety.

In an added statement, UC President James B. Milliken pointed to the university’s efforts to combat antisemitism.

“The Board of Regents and administrative leadership have been unequivocal: antisemitism has no place at the University of California,” his statement read. :We have instituted numerous systemwide reforms and programs to promote safety and combat antisemitism on our campuses. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose family was profoundly affected by Nazi antisemitism and the Holocaust, has made the protection of Jewish students, faculty, and staff on campus the highest priority since the day he took office. It is so disappointing that this most recent lawsuit shows no recognition of or respect for that essential work. This litigation – and other actions taken by the federal government targeting the University of California – do nothing to aid our ongoing efforts to address antisemitism and create a safe and welcoming campus environments for all members of our community.”

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The 53-page complaint alleges UCLA violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through indifference to on-campus antisemitism during pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations that erupted in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

“Earlier this year, we sued UCLA for subjecting its Jewish and Israeli employees to an antisemitic hostile work environment,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

“Now, the Department of Justice calls UCLA to account for its toleration of the equally appalling hostile educational environment against its Jewish and Israeli students.”

The DOJ also contends UCLA breached its funding contracts and grants with the federal government by certifying the school’s compliance with its Title VI duties to protect all students from unlawful discrimination while allowing discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students to infect its campus.

Antisemitism at UCLA allegedly reached a flash point in April 2024 when masked demonstrators erected an encampment outside of Royce Hall and slapped, kicked, beat with sticks, doused with pepper spray, and knocked unconscious Jewish and Israeli students, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.

During that time, occupiers formed “human phalanxes” to block Jewish and Israeli students from entering academic buildings, the DOJ alleges.

The DOJ previously sued the UC system in February, alleging UCLA didn’t properly investigate dozens of civil rights complaints made by Jewish and Israeli employees since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

In January, the Trump administration joined a lawsuit alleging UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine used a “systemically racist approach” to admissions that favored Black and Latino applicants over white and Asian American ones.