In the University of California’s strongest rebuke yet of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against it, the university is asking a federal judge to throw out a Justice Department lawsuit accusing UCLA of enabling antisemitism, describing the case in court filings as “political coercion.”
UC is seeking to block a federal demand for repayment of more than $2 billion in UCLA research grants going back to October 2023, when pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campus after the Hamas attack on Israel and the onset of Israel’s war in Gaza. UC said in court documents that federal authorities are more interested in bringing “institutions of higher education to heel” than in enforcing civil rights.
In a 539-page court filing submitted late Wednesday, UC’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder in Los Angeles to dismiss the case filed four months ago, alleging the government is “weaponizing” civil rights laws and has no legal basis for the suit.
The Justice Department sued in May under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It alleged UCLA showed “deliberate indifference” to harassment of Jewish and Israeli students from October 2023 through January 2026. The law bars discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs that receive federal money. The suit also claims UCLA violated its federal grant terms and asks for the funds to be repaid.
UC said in its filing that the federal demand covers more than 2,000 research projects, totaling a sum that far exceeds the $1.2-billion fine sought by the administration in August 2025. That demand came after the government suspended $584 million in UCLA grants over allegations of unaddressed antisemitism.
The Justice Department’s settlement proposal at the time sought sweeping changes to admissions, protest rules and other campus policies, including a public declaration that UCLA does not recognize transgender people’s gender identities. A federal judge blocked the fine and the proposal’s conditions in November after faculty groups and unions sued, and the administration dropped its appeal in February.
UC was not a party to that case.
The new motion marks a significant new chapter in the conflict between the Trump administration and the nation’s preeminent public university system. It is the first time UC has formally asked a court to reject the government’s antisemitism case against it, backed by sworn statements from the chancellor and other top UCLA officials. Until now, UC had largely left the most aggressive court fights to faculty groups, unions and researchers.
UCLA details campus changes
UC argues the suit relies mostly on events from more than two years ago, chiefly a spring 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment, which was also at the center of a lawsuit UCLA settled last year with Jewish students.
In that case, U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi ruled in August 2024 that “Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” and ordered UCLA to guarantee equal access to campus. In court documents, the Justice Department cites that ruling. UC said the settlement shows its campus changes are working.
The encampment, which included Jewish student participants, was attacked by counterprotesters in an overnight melee that spring. A botched police response left students fending for themselves for hours as officers stood by, a UC-commissioned review later found.
To win a court order, UC said in its filing, the government must show the university is currently breaking the law.
A federal judge in Boston used the same reasoning in August to dismiss what UC described as “materially identical claims” against Harvard tied to pro-Palestinian protests there. In that case, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns found the incidents cited by the government were “too isolated and episodic” to prove an ongoing violation. The Justice Department has appealed.
UC also said Title VI does not allow the government to claw back money spent on finished research.
The filing accuses the government of “head-in-the-sand disregard for UCLA’s recent reforms.” It includes lengthy statements and exhibits explaining these reforms from Chancellor Julio Frenk, campus safety chief Steve Lurie, student affairs chief Monroe Gorden Jr. and business professor Stuart Gabriel, who leads UCLA’s Initiative to Combat Antisemitism.
Since 2024, UCLA has created a new top campus safety position, banned encampments and masks used to intimidate or hide identity during violations, reorganized its civil rights office, hired a Title VI officer and revoked recognition of Students for Justice in Palestine, which was accused of vandalizing the Brentwood home of a Jewish UC regent, Jay Sures, officials said their statements.
Frenk, who arrived in January 2025, has made combating antisemitism a centerpiece of his leadership, calling it in his court statement “a moral imperative.” The Anti-Defamation League raised UCLA’s antisemitism grade from an F in 2024 to a B this year. But faculty members and outside groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations have accused Frenk and UCLA of not giving equal attention to complaints of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian harassment on campus.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. When it sued UCLA, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon said the campus had tolerated an “appalling hostile educational environment” for Jewish and Israeli students.
UC shifts to combative stance
UC’s court action marks a more combative tone from its earlier responses to the Trump administration. Last year, after the $1.2-billion demand, UC President James B. Milliken said a payment of that size “would completely devastate” the university system, but added that UC had offered “to engage in good faith dialogue” with Washington.
UC’s lawyers wrote that the lawsuit “is not really about ensuring compliance with civil rights laws, but about weaponizing those laws to bring institutions of higher education to heel.” They cited former Justice Department lawyers who told The Times in December that the department’s investigation of UC was a “political hit job.”
“The Department of Justice’s complaint ignores the meaningful action UCLA and Chancellor Frenk have taken to protect our Jewish community,” Milliken said in a statement Thursday. “DOJ’s action does nothing to improve the environment on campus.”
Holdout among university legal settlements
The motion also leaves UC as a major holdout after a string of settlements in which universities facing antisemitism investigations agreed to pay a combined total of hundreds of millions of dollars. Those included Columbia, Northwestern, Cornell and Brown, all last year. The University of Pennsylvania and University of Virginia settled without paying, though their disputes were over transgender athletes in women’s sports and diversity programs, not antisemitism.
UC stood with Harvard in July, joining 35 other schools in a court brief backing Harvard’s separate lawsuit over more than $2.2 billion in federal research grants that the administration froze in 2025 over allegations about the university’s handling of antisemitism. A judge ordered the money restored last year. The administration has appealed.
Even if Snyder were to dismiss the case, UC’s fight with Washington would not end.
The Justice Department this year joined a suit accusing UCLA’s medical school of favoring Black and Latino applicants in admissions in violation of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision ending race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The medical school has denied the charge.
The administration has also moved against other UC campuses. Since May, the Justice Department has issued findings accusing the medical schools at UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco, and UC Berkeley’s law school, of illegally favoring Black and Latino applicants over white and Asian ones, and has threatened to sue if the campuses do not agree to changes. The campuses deny the allegations.
The federal government has also sued UC under Title VII, the federal job discrimination law, over alleged antisemitic harassment of UCLA employees. Six Jewish UCLA faculty members and employees have joined that suit as plaintiffs. When the suit was filed, a UCLA spokesperson said the university would “vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community.” UC’s court response in that case is due Oct. 26.
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