DOJ sues University of California over antisemitism allegations in latest salvo

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division sued the University of California system on Tuesday over allegations that its largest campus didn’t do enough to quell workplace antisemitism. 

In its complaint, the DOJ accused the University of California, Los Angeles of failing to properly investigate what the agency said were dozens of civil rights complaints filed by Jewish and Israeli employees since Oct. 7, 2023, when a Hamas attack on Israel erupted into a yearslong war. 

UCLA did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday. 

Much of the complaint centers around pro-Palestinian protests in late 2023 and early 2024, and it heavily cites an October 2024 report produced by UCLA’s antisemitism taskforce. 

The DOJ’s complaint made dozens of references to a spring 2024 encampment on UCLA’s campus that university leaders allowed for roughly a week out of free speech concerns before calling in the police to disband it. 

The agency also accused UCLA of retaliating against employees who filed antisemitism complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

“Based on our investigation, UCLA administrators allegedly allowed virulent anti-Semitism to flourish on campus, harming students and staff alike,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Tuesday statement.

However, Democratic lawmakers and some Jewish groups have accused the Trump administration of weaponizing antisemitism allegations against colleges as a means of exerting control over the higher ed sector.

Thursday’s lawsuit is the latest attack from the Trump administration against UCLA and the UC system.The federal government froze $584 million of UCLA’s research funding over allegations it violated civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish students from harassment.

In November, a federal judge ruled that the freeze — and the Trump administration’s corresponding effort to wrest a $1.2 billion penalty from UC — was unconstitutional and illegally ignored existing procedures for enforcing civil rights law. Earlier this month, the administration dropped an appeal of the ruling. 

The DOJ also opened a separate investigation into the UC system in June over a plan to hire diverse faculty members, alleging it may have violated federal antidiscrimination law.