DOJ Sues UC, Alleges ‘Hostile Workplace’ for Jews

The Department of Justice sued the University of California system on Tuesday, alleging that it tolerated racism and created a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli employees at UCLA, in violation of federal employment law.

The lawsuit continues to target Trump’s campus for allegedly failing to respond to pro-Palestinian protests that followed the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, which sparked unrest. the recent Israel-Hamas war. The administration previously cut off UCLA’s research funding, but lost in court.

“Swastikas, calling for the elimination of Jews and the Jewish state of Israel, violence against Jews, and harassment of Jewish students, faculty and staff: this was a tragic situation at the University of California Los Angeles,” begins the new lawsuit. It says “the general climate of anti-Semitism was so severe, and so widespread, that the UCLA Task Force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias concluded that the University’s failure to protect Jewish staff and faculty created a hostile work environment.”

The DOJ already ruled, last July, that UCLA violated other laws—the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—in its response to allegations of religious intolerance at the spring 2024 protest camp. Many federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, immediately began funding; UC estimates it lost $584 million.

The Trump administration also demanded that UCLA pay $1.2 billion and make other concessions, including stop enrolling “foreign students who may be involved in anti-Western, anti-American, or anti-Semitic harassment or harassment” and stop “hormonal intervention and ‘transgender’ surgery” on anyone under 18 at its medical school and affiliated hospitals.

But after the UC researchers sued, US District Court Judge Rita F. Lin of the Northern District of California ordered that almost all of the frozen money be returned. In November, Lin also ordered federal agencies to end their “absolute policy of denying any future grants” to UCLA and decreed that the administration would not seek payments from any UC campus “in connection with any civil rights investigation” under Title VI or IX. Lin again prohibited the DOJ and federal funding agencies from seizing funds, “or threatening to do so, to coerce UC in violation of the First Amendment or the Tenth Amendment.”

Now, the DOJ is suing in the US District Court for the Central District of California under Title VII, a separate law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Among other things, it asks the judge to compel the UC system to pay damages to Jewish and Israeli employees and to “modify and enforce its anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies and procedures to prevent and effectively address discrimination and unlawful retaliation at UCLA.”

Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, noted in a statement that the university has taken “concrete and significant steps to strengthen campus security, enforce policies, and combat antisemitism,” including hiring a dedicated Title VI/Title VII officer within the Office of Human Rights.

“We stand firm in the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms, and will vigorously defend our efforts and unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community,” he wrote.

In a statement, Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, wrote that “allegations of anti-Semitism must be taken seriously, but this case comes amid a broader pattern in which the federal government continues to arm itself with anti-Semitic weapons to suppress and reorganize institutions of higher education to a right-wing agenda, including the previous federal attack on UCLA. academic freedom, corporate governance, and university autonomy.”