The U.S. Department of Justice sued the University of California, Los Angeles, alleging the school failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment amid pro-Palestinian protests that escalated on campus in 2023 and 2024.
In the Tuesday filing, the Justice Department characterized the case as a further escalation in the Trump administration’s push to hold universities accountable for antisemitism. The complaint focuses on allegations aimed at UCLA specifically, even though the lawsuit names the University of California system, which includes 10 campuses.
The lawsuit alleges that UCLA did not adequately discipline students, faculty and staff connected to protests, including a campus encampment in 2024. Federal officials say the encampment blocked Jewish employees and students from parts of campus and included antisemitic signs and chants.
The Justice Department’s filing also describes an attack by counterprotesters against the encampment, saying counterprotesters threw traffic cones and fired pepper spray during fighting that lasted for hours until police intervened. The complaint says that after hundreds of protesters refused orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested the next day.
In the lawsuit’s account, UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the encampment and by failing to discipline people over antisemitic behavior. The filing alleges the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees “goes much deeper” than situations addressed in earlier litigation involving UCLA.
The Justice Department said that Trump officials previously determined UCLA failed to protect Jewish students, and that UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor after a prior lawsuit. The new federal complaint asks the court to require UCLA to enforce its anti-discrimination policies and to “award damages” to Jewish employees at UCLA facing what the complaint describes as a hostile work environment, without specifying an amount.
UCLA said it has taken what it described as “concrete and significant steps” to strengthen campus security, enforce policies, and combat antisemitism. Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said, “Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or elsewhere,” in a statement. Osako did not address the federal lawsuit directly in the response that was relayed through the UC system.
The federal complaint seeks court remedies aimed at what it describes as ongoing failures, including allegations that UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to antisemitic acts and ignored requests for help from Jewish and Israeli employees. The suit also points to the university’s response to protests and says UCLA mishandled its obligations under its own anti-discrimination policies.
The lawsuit arrives as the Trump administration has pursued similar actions against other universities, primarily targeting elite private schools in its broader effort. UCLA is described as one of the few public universities targeted in that effort.
UCLA and federal policy conflicts have already intersected. Last summer, the Trump administration said it was seeking $1 billion from UCLA as part of a settlement to end federal scrutiny, after Trump officials cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. A federal judge ordered the money restored in September, and in November barred the federal government from fining UCLA.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk has launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, and the university has cited additional measures such as creating an Office of Campus and Community Safety and new policies to manage protests on campus.