Federal judge orders UCLA to end ‘abhorrent’ discrimination against Jewish students

A federal judge ordered the University of California, Los Angeles to stop providing programs and activities to all students when Jewish students are prevented from accessing them, as they were earlier this year by pro-Palestinian protests.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi issued a blistering order Tuesday barring the University of California Regents and UCLA President Michael Drake from “offering any ordinarily available programs, activities, or campus areas to students if [they] know the ordinarily available programs, activities, or campus areas are not fully and equally accessible to Jewish students.”

The preliminary injunction granted ahead of the 2024-25 academic year came in response to a lawsuit filed by three Jewish students who said they were blocked from sections of the campus last quarter after Gaza War protesters set up encampments and “checkpoints” demanding that students denounce the Jewish state.

Judge Scarsi, a Trump appointee, called the situation “abhorrent” and “unimaginable.”

“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” the judge said.

“This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating,” he wrote.

He said that “UCLA does not dispute this,” but claims it has “no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters.”

“But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion,” Judge Scarsi said in the 16-page order.

Judge Scarsi, who ordered the university last month to craft a plan to prevent discrimination, did not tell UCLA how to handle future encampments, protests or blockades.

“How best to make any unavailable programs, activities, and campus areas available again is left to UCLA’s discretion,” he said.

Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said Wednesday that the university is “closely reviewing the Judge’s ruling and considering all our options moving forward.”

“UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination, and harassment,” Ms. Osako said in a statement. “The district court’s ruling is improper and would hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community.”

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents the Jewish students, said that the protesters “harassed Jewish students and stopped them from accessing classes, the library, and other critical parts of campus.”

“UCLA reinforced these zones — both by providing metal barriers and by sending away Jewish students — while taking no effective action to ensure safe passage for Jewish students,” Becket said.

The injunction, which goes into effect Thursday, represents “the first in the nation against a university for allowing an antisemitic encampment,” Becket said.

“Shame on UCLA for letting antisemitic thugs terrorize Jews on campus,” Becket President Mark Rienzi said. “Today’s ruling says that UCLA’s policy of helping antisemitic activists target Jews is not just morally wrong but a gross constitutional violation. UCLA should stop fighting the Constitution and start protecting Jews on campus.”

Judge Scarsi tearing UCLA a new one:
“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so… https://t.co/hpDtfbKlLr

— David Bernstein (@ProfDBernstein) August 14, 2024

The students said the protest barriers prevented them from crossing Royce Quad or studying at Powell Library, forcing them to cancel plans and take alternative routes around campus because they refused to give in to protesters’ demands to denounce Israel before being allowed to pass.

UCLA directed police on May 2 to clear the Royce Quad encampment, dubbed the “Jew Exclusion Zone” by Becket, but protesters set up new encampments on May 23 and June 10, the order said.

“No student should ever have to fear being blocked from their campus because they are Jewish,” said Yitzchok Frankel, a rising third-year law student at UCLA. “I am grateful that the court has ordered UCLA to put a stop to this shameful anti-Jewish conduct.”

The university is expected to appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The fall quarter at UCLA begins Sept. 23.

In May, UCLA established an Office of Campus Safety to administer emergency management in response to protest activity, which was spurred on campuses nationwide by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 civilians.