The University of California Los Angeles was hit with a lawsuit Tuesday by the US Department of Justice alleging the school failed to quash a campus environment hostile to Jewish and Israeli students.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, said the school is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race or national origin, because of its “deliberate indifference” to antisemitic incidents on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel.

The Justice Department pointed to an April 2024 incident where anti-Israel protesters built an encampment on campus and allegedly kicked, slapped, and beat Jewish and Israeli students. The complaint alleged the school “took no serious action whatsoever” until over a week later when it allowed police to clear the encampment.

“Universities that violate our nation’s civil rights laws by repeatedly failing to shield Jewish students from antisemitism will be held accountable,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said in a statement.

In a statement, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said allegations that the school has acted passively on antisemitism are “simply wrong.”

“Combating antisemitism is a moral imperative — one rooted, for me, in personal history that makes indifference unthinkable,” Frenk said. He said the school had taken a number of concrete actions, including recruiting an associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, reorganizing the school’s Civil Rights Office, and appointing a Title VI officer.

The legal action is the latest in the Trump administration’s legal brawls with the university. Earlier this year, the Justice Department sued the school for failing to stop a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees. And earlier this month the the department announced it had determined through a year-long investigation that UCLA’s medical school illegally selected students based on their race.

The administration last year also attempted to cut about $584 million in federal grants to the school based on similar claims of failing to prevent on campus antisemitism. The administration sought a $1.2 billion settlement to resolve the claims, but a federal judge blocked the proposed grant terminations.

And on Tuesday morning, ahead of the lawsuit, a federal appeals court partially upheld another injunction that prohibited grant cuts to University of California researchers based on the administration’s executive orders seeking to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

The case is USA v. Regents of the Univ. of Calif., C.D. Cal., No. 2:26-cv-05589, complaint filed 5/26/26.