Trump’s DOJ Sues UCLA For Anti Semitism After Earlier Refusal To Pay Admin

India-West News Desk

LOS ANGELES, CA – The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an 81 page civil rights lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles, alleging that campus leaders allowed antisemitic harassment to persist during protests in 2024.

In a complaint filed February 24, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division claims UCLA permitted antisemitic conduct to continue for days near Royce Hall. The filing alleges that Jewish students and faculty were blocked from parts of the main quad, Jewish professors were assaulted, swastikas were spray painted on campus buildings, and classrooms were disrupted. The complaint further states that Jewish and Israeli faculty were physically threatened, ostracized, and harassed, and that the university failed to enforce viewpoint neutral time, place and manner policies.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said that if the allegations are proven, they would represent a serious stain on the university.

The lawsuit marks one of several clashes between the Trump administration and UCLA. While the administration has largely targeted elite private universities in its campaign against what it describes as liberal and antisemitic bias on campuses, UCLA is among the few public universities to face similar scrutiny.

Last summer, federal officials said they were seeking $ one billion from UCLA to resolve civil rights concerns and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.

A federal judge ordered the funding restored in September and later barred the government from imposing fines on the university in November.

In a statement provided to KTLA, UCLA Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako said Chancellor Dr. Julio Frenk has made clear that antisemitism has no place at the university. She said UCLA has strengthened campus safety, hired new leadership focused on civil rights compliance, reorganized its Office of Civil Rights, adopted updated time, place and manner policies, and launched an Initiative to Combat Antisemitism. The university said it will vigorously defend its actions and remains committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus environment.