WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Justice Department is suing the University of California over allegations that UCLA failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment amid that roiled the campus in 2023 and 2024.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California, is the latest escalation in the Trump administration鈥檚 campaign to punish top universities that it says have been soft on antisemitism. The suit accuses the University of California, Los Angeles of failing to discipline those who were involved in protests, including dozens who were arrested in 2024 for failing to leave a campus encampment.
Trump officials previously determined that UCLA failed to protect Jewish students, and last year UCLA reached a $6 million with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university. The new lawsuit alleges the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees 鈥済oes much deeper鈥� than the situations that settlement addressed.
鈥淭he United States will now do what UC has thus far failed to do: protect Jewish and Israeli employees鈥� from antisemitic harassment, said the lawsuit, which was filed against the University of California, which consists of 10 campuses, but focuses on allegations against UCLA.
The University of California referred a request for comment to UCLA, which said Tuesday it has taken 鈥渃oncrete and significant steps鈥� to strengthen campus security, enforce policies and combat antisemitism. It did not mention the federal government’s lawsuit.
鈥淎ntisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or elsewhere,鈥� Mary Osako, UCLA鈥檚 vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in the statement.
Much of the federal complaint focuses on the 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, .
The 81-page 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.
鈥淯CLA鈥檚 administration turned a blind eye to 鈥� and at times facilitated 鈥� grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified Jewish and Israeli employees,鈥� the Justice Department alleges in the lawsuit.
The suit asks a judge to force UCLA to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies and to 鈥渁ward damages,鈥� without specifying an amount, to Jewish employees at UCLA who faced a hostile work environment.
The university has said it has taken numerous steps toward improving campus safety and inclusivity, including the creation of an Office of Campus and Community Safety and new policies to manage protests on campus. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled to Mexico to escape Nazi Germany and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.
鈥淲e stand firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms, and we will vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community,鈥� Osako said in the university’s statement.
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 from UCLA as part of a settlement to end federal scrutiny. Trump officials had cut in federal funding from the university, though a federal judge ordered the money to be restored in September. In November, that same judge barred the federal government from . ___ Gecker reported from San Francisco.
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