Justice Department – The Trump administration filed a 53-page complaint in federal court alleging UCLA was “deliberately indifferent” to antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli students after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, and is seeking court-ordered reforms, a monitor, and
When police cleared an encampment at UCLA on May 2. 2024. the Justice Department said it was only after months of alleged harm to Jewish and Israeli students. On Tuesday. the Trump administration returned to federal court for the third time against the University of California—this time alleging UCLA tolerated a hostile educational environment and that leaders waited too long to act.
The 53-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. accuses UCLA of violating federal civil rights by being “deliberately indifferent” to antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli students after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The attack prompted Israel’s war in Gaza. and the complaint says the escalation of that war fueled student protests and pro-Palestinian encampments in the spring of 2024. including an encampment at UCLA.
That UCLA encampment became the focus of a violent melee on the night of April 30, 2024, the department alleges. In court filings. masked demonstrators “kicked and slapped Jews. beat Jews with sticks. and assaulted Jews with pepper spray.” The Justice Department says UCLA took “no serious action whatsoever” until police cleared the camp on May 2. 2024.
The lawsuit asks the court to order UCLA to repay federal grant money dating back more than two years—potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. The department also wants the university barred from new federal contracts until it is found in compliance with civil rights law. and it is seeking the installation of an independent. court-appointed monitor to oversee UCLA’s civil rights practices. The filing further requests court-ordered changes to UCLA’s antidiscrimination procedures.
The department’s demands are narrower than an earlier push for broader changes. Last August. the Trump administration unsuccessfully sought an agreement that would have required UCLA to pay roughly $1.2 billion to settle allegations of civil rights violations. This new case, by contrast, concentrates on the allegedly tolerated hostile environment around Jewish and Israeli students.
The Justice Department also argues that campus leaders failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students through this year. To support that claim. court documents point to rallies held by Students for Justice in Palestine groups—organizations banned as formal UCLA organizations. but described in the filing as having continued to hold unauthorized protests on campus. The complaint says the group includes members and supporters who are Jewish.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. framed the suit as a direct response to what she called a failure of protection for students in an educational setting. “Earlier this year. we sued UCLA for subjecting its Jewish and Israeli employees to an antisemitic hostile work environment. ” Dhillon said in a statement. “Now. the Department of Justice calls UCLA to account for its toleration of the equally appalling hostile educational environment against its Jewish and Israeli students.”.
A spokesperson for UC did not respond to a request for comment.
UCLA has denied prior allegations related to antisemitism and has said it opposes antisemitism while preparing to defend how it handles campus climate issues. In February. when the Justice Department sued UC over an alleged antisemitic workplace climate for employees. UCLA Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako said the university stood “firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms” and would “vigorously defend” its commitment to a safe. inclusive environment. Osako also pointed to the university’s chancellor. Julio Frenk. saying. “As Chancellor Frenk has made clear: Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or anywhere.”.
The Justice Department filed that earlier workplace case the same morning Frenk delivered his first “state of campus” annual address. In that speech, the chancellor did not mention the court case. He told the campus that UCLA was focused on combating antisemitism and “all forms of hatred and bigotry.” Frenk said UCLA had been focused on replacing “good intentions with specific actions. ” listing steps he said the university has taken since his tenure began in January. Those steps included recruiting an associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety. reorganizing the Civil Rights Office. appointing a Title VI officer. and strengthening policies intended to protect both free expression and safety while enhancing disciplinary processes for those who violate laws and policies.
The new lawsuit also leans on internal assessments of campus climate. It cites a 2024 report produced by UCLA’s former Task Force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. which in late 2024 faulted UCLA for “broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus.” That task force later transformed into UCLA’s Initiative to Combat Antisemitism.
This month, that initiative produced another report saying UCLA has made strides improving campus culture, including new training and reforms to the civil rights complaint system, while still indicating more work remains.
Separately, in the wake of 2024 protests, UCLA commissioned a task force on anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism. That task force found “increased harassment. violence. and targeting” of those groups since 2024 and suggested reforms to policing and protest rules on campus. which it said unfairly targeted pro-Palestinian voices. The Justice Department’s lawsuit does not address those concerns.
The case is the latest in a string of Justice Department actions targeting UC this year. In January. the Trump administration joined a lawsuit accusing UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine of using a “systemically racist approach” to admissions that privileged Black and Latino applicants over white and Asian American applicants. in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that barred race-based affirmative action.
In February, the Justice Department sued UC alleging UCLA administrators “routinely ignored” and “failed to report” employee complaints of antisemitism, citing what the department called a “severe and pervasive” workplace problem dating to the 2023 onset of the Israel-Hamas war.
The administration has also expanded civil rights scrutiny beyond UCLA. In March. the Justice Department’s civil rights division opened investigations into whether UC San Diego and Stanford racially discriminated in medical school admissions. demanding seven years of applicant data and placing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding potentially at risk. Both schools have said they comply with state and federal antidiscrimination laws.
For UCLA and the broader UC system. the lawsuit signals a continued push from federal authorities—one that goes beyond policy disagreements and seeks enforcement through the courts. And for Jewish and Israeli students who the complaint says faced assaults and harassment. the legal filings turn campus conflict into something far more immediate: a question of who is protected. when. and under what law.
UCLA Justice Department Civil Rights Division antisemitism Jewish students Israeli students hostile educational environment federal lawsuit civil rights monitor federal grants UC system