DOJ Sues UCLA, Alleging Failure to Protect Jewish Employees From Antisemitic Harassment

The Justice Department has filed an 81-page civil-rights lawsuit against the University of California over UCLA’s handling of 2023–2024 pro-Palestinian protests, alleging the campus tolerated antisemitic harassment that created a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees. Filed in federal court in California, the complaint accuses UCLA of allowing an encampment that blocked access for Jewish staff and students, featured antisemitic chants and signs, and led to more than 200 arrests in 2024, yet resulted in no discipline for university community members over antisemitic conduct. DOJ says UCLA "turned a blind eye" and at times "facilitated" such acts, and asks a judge to order the school to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies and pay unspecified damages to affected employees. The suit follows a prior Trump‑era finding that UCLA failed to protect Jewish students and a separate $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a professor, with DOJ now arguing harm to employees "goes much deeper" than those earlier cases. UCLA responded that it has taken "concrete and significant steps" to strengthen security, manage protests and combat antisemitism—citing a new Office of Campus and Community Safety and an initiative launched by Chancellor Julio Frenk—but did not address the lawsuit directly, setting up another high‑profile clash between Trump’s Justice Department and elite universities over campus antisemitism and protest policing.