The United States Department of Justice has launched a major federal civil rights lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), accusing the prominent institution of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from rampant campus hostility, Reuters reported.
Filed on Tuesday by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the formal legal complaint alleges that the university administration directly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The bedrock federal legislation explicitly prohibits discrimination based on national origin, race, or color within any educational framework or activity that receives federal funding. In its filing, the government slammed the university "through its deliberate indifference to this pervasive on-campus antisemitism."
Central to the federal government's legal case is an unauthorized protest encampment that was erected on the university's grounds back in April 2024. The Justice Department officially characterized the unlawful occupation as illegal, adding specific allegations that Jewish students were subjected to physical attacks during the disruptions.
Federal prosecutors emphasized that the academic establishment would face full legal consequences for its inability to maintain order and safeguard its student body.
"Universities have an obligation to maintain safe and inclusive campuses for all students," declared Bill Essayli, the first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California. "Universities that violate our nation’s civil rights laws by repeatedly failing to shield Jewish students from antisemitism will be held accountable."
When contacted directly regarding the sudden federal litigation, UCLA representatives did not immediately issue a response.
Two months after the April 2024 incident, at least 25 people were arrested at UCLA after setting up multiple pro-Palestinian Arab encampments on campus that police said were unlawful.
A day earlier, a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi at UCLA was assaulted by anti-Israel activists who called their victim a "Zionist pedophile rabbi," and told him to "go back to Poland."
UCLA is one of many US colleges and universities to have been in the headlines over an increase in incidents of antisemitism on campuses since October 7, 2023.
The lawsuit is part of a broader, systemic federal crackdown orchestrated by the Trump administration against unchecked antisemitism festering across American academic campuses.