The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against the University of California Los Angeles on Tuesday, alleging the university tolerated a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.
In its complaint, the Justice Department charges that UCLA violated Title VI - a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance - "through its deliberate indifference to this pervasive on-campus antisemitism." The complaint specifically points to an encampment that was built on the university’s campus in April 2024 and describes the encampment as illegal, saying Jewish students were attacked.
"Universities have an obligation to maintain safe and inclusive campuses for all students," said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. "Universities that violate our nation’s civil rights laws by repeatedly failing to shield Jewish students from antisemitism will be held accountable."
The Justice Department said UCLA had repeatedly failed to protect Jewish students from harassment and hostile conduct. The department's filing frames the alleged failures as a Title VI violation because the institution receives federal financial assistance, and the civil rights statute bars discrimination connected to that funding.
UCLA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit was announced shortly after a federal appeals court earlier on Tuesday partially upheld an injunction that required the government to restore grants previously awarded to the University of California. Those grants had been cut last year by the prior administration, which said the funds were linked to diversity, equity and inclusion activities. The appeals court action relates to a separate legal dispute over the termination and restoration of those grants.
The current lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal measures described by the prior administration as efforts to address antisemitism at U.S. universities in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. The 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, launched the Israel-Gaza war. Over 75,000 people have died in the war, according to the complaint's framing of the broader context.
In the months following the outbreak of hostilities, the complaint notes that hundreds of students across the United States and Europe staged demonstrations calling for a ceasefire. Those demonstrations, in some instances, included occupations of campus buildings. The Justice Department's lawsuit ties its allegations about conduct on UCLA's campus to that wider wave of university protests.
The department's filing seeks legal remedies available under federal civil rights law. It contends that institutional action and policy at UCLA amounted to deliberate indifference, and that such a standard merits judicial intervention when tied to federally funded programs.
This legal action comes amid heightened scrutiny of how public universities respond to political and protest activity on campus, particularly when such activity is alleged to cross into targeted harassment or violence against members of protected groups. The lawsuit centers on whether UCLA's response, or lack of it, rose to the level of violating Title VI protections for students who identify as Jewish or Israeli.
Note: The complaint and related court actions cited in this article are the basis for the facts reported here. Where the public record is limited to filings and court orders, this article reflects those materials rather than invoking additional sources or conclusions beyond the legal filings.