The Trump administration is joining the fight against antisemitism at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), with the Department of Justice (DOJ) joining an ongoing case brought by Jewish students in federal court.
The lawsuit, filed last summer, came after UCLA tolerated — and in some ways supported — a radical anti-Israel “encampment” that singled out Jewish students for abuse (as well as violating the civil rights of others on campus).
Several Jewish UCLA students undertook private legal action against UCLA, and sought an injunction that would force the university to defend their civil rights. The Biden DOJ sat on the sidelines, but the Trump DOJ has joined in.
In a press statement Tuesday, the DOJ noted:
The Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced that the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the Central District of California to advance the appropriate interpretation of federal laws that prohibit colleges and universities from discriminating against students because of their religion or national origin. The statement of interest is part of the Task Force’s nationwide effort to combat antisemitism in all of its forms.
According to the allegations in Frankel et al. v. Regents of the University of California et al., in the spring of 2024 administrators of the University of California system allowed members of a protest encampment to physically prevent University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) students and faculty from accessing portions of the UCLA campus if they were wearing articles reflective of their Jewish faith or if they refused to denounce Israel.
The plaintiffs are Jewish students and a Jewish professor at UCLA who allege that the university knowingly acted in concert with or allowed members of the protest encampment to prevent them from accessing a central campus space and adjacent classrooms and library on the basis of their Jewish faith or national origin in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, and California state law. The United States’ statement of interest addresses the sufficiency of plaintiffs’ claims that defendant administrators violated Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause.
The DOJ filing states, in part:
As this Court already found on August 13, 2024, when it ordered a preliminary injunction against the Defendants: “In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating[.] UCLA does not dispute this.” … Even though UCLA may not dispute that the antisemitic campus environment at UCLA last year was “unimaginable” and “abhorrent,” the Individual Defendants moved to dismiss this action to evade liability for what happened on the campus that they are supposed to lead and protect.
…
Additionally, as described in the White House’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, it is the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.
The Los Angeles Times quoted a UCLA spokesperson who said that the university is “committed to eradicating antisemitism.” The university is fighting the lawsuit because it says it was not responsible for the antisemitism of the encampments. In addition, the administration is under pressure from left-wing faculty who have cast the lawsuit as an attempt to shut down criticism of Israel.
President Trump launched the federal antisemitism taskforce under the leadership of civil rights attorney Leo Terrell. It is currently investigating ten universities, including UCLA.
President Joe Biden, despite a supposed “strategy” on antisemitism, never undertook such actions. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former DOJ Civil Rights Division chief Kristen Clarke were virtually silent about antisemitism on campus.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
The post Trump DOJ Joins Case Against UCLA over Antisemitism on Campus appeared first on Breitbart.
