The Trump administration
The lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice's civil rights division claims UCLA has created a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
"Based on our investigation, UCLA administrators allegedly allowed virulent anti-Semitism to flourish on campus, harming students and staff alike," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. "Today's lawsuit underscores that this Department of Justice stands strong against hate and anti-Semitism in all its vile forms."
The lawsuit stems from a DOJ investigation launched last March. While the lawsuit names the UC system, it relates to findings at UCLA. It doesn't include allegations from last summer about discrimination against Jewish students, cisgender women in sports and white and Asian students in admissions.
The 81-page federal lawsuit, filed in California's Central District court, escalates the Trump administration's actions against UC, which have included several civil rights investigations launched since 2025 into the system or individual campuses.
On Aug. 8, the Trump administration demanded that UC pay nearly $1.2 billion to settle civil rights investigations into UCLA-related antisemitism complaints, the failure to abandon diversity programs that support non-whites and other disadvantaged groups in the admissions process and policies that allow transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity.
That move came after it sent a series of letters in July and August threatening 800 research grants awarded to UCLA — worth about $584 million.
The Regents of the University of California
A federal judge in November blocked the Trump administration's efforts to extract money from the UC system and cancel the grants. In February, the Trump administration
A $1.93 billion revenue bond deal for UC Regents priced Wednesday.
UCLA spokeswoman Mary Osako said the university stands by its decisive actions to combat antissemitism "and we will vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community."
"As Chancellor [Julio] Frenk has made clear: antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or anywhere," Osako, vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement. "Under his leadership, UCLA has taken concrete and significant steps to strengthen campus safety, enforce policies and combat antisemitism in a systemic and sustained manner."
UCLA reached a $6 million
The Justice Department's latest lawsuit claims antisemitic acts were pervasive on the UCLA campus after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, resulted in retaliatory strikes by Israel in Gaza. The lawsuit cited a protest that allegedly violated employee rights as recently as January. The pro-Palestinian protesters have claimed they were exercising their First Amendment rights to protest alleged atrocities committed in Gaza.
The litany of antisemitic acts at UCLA are, "if found to be true, a mark of shame against the University of California," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, which is overseeing the UCLA investigation.
The lawsuit stems from a charge filed by then-Commissioner Andrea Lucas of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in June 2024 following an investigation into allegations of harassment at UCLA and claims about the university's complaint system.
The lawsuit mainly focuses on the spring of 2024, when protests on the UCLA campus over Israel's war in Gaza became increasingly heated. It alleges that during the protests Jews were not permitted on portions of the main quad, Jewish professors were assaulted and swastikas were painted on university buildings.
It also claims that Jewish professors have been, and continue to be, subjected to ostracism and harassment by their colleagues and students, while their colleagues and supervisors not only have failed to report those acts as required, but have even participated in them.
It further alleges the university "engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination" by failing to prevent and correct discriminatory and harassing conduct against Jewish and Israeli employees.
