A Los Angeles federal judge Tuesday blasted as "unimaginable" and "abhorrent" UCLA's hands-off policy during this spring's pro-Palestinian demonstrations, in which Jewish students reportedly were prevented from accessing classrooms, the library and other campus locations.
A temporary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi orders UCLA to prevent alleged antisemitic zones such as the encampments in April that reportedly blocked Jewish students from parts of campus. Attorneys said it is the first such ruling in the nation against a university.
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The court order comes as a result of a lawsuit against UCLA filed in June in which two law students and an undergraduate allege the university allowed a group of students and outsiders to set up a pro-Palestinian encampment that forcibly kept Jewish students and faculty from accessing critical parts of campus.
UCLA allegedly reinforced the zones -- both by providing metal barriers and by sending away Jewish students -- while taking no effective action to ensure safe passage for the students, the suit said. In response to the complaint, UCLA disavowed any obligation to protect its Jewish students, the judge wrote.
"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," Scarsi wrote in his order issued Tuesday in L.A. federal court.
"This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters."
The judge continued, "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."
Scarsi denied a bid by UCLA to stay the permanent injunction, which goes into effect Thursday. UCLA is expected to appeal the ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said previously the university is working to address the issues alleged in the lawsuit.
"UCLA is committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus, holding those who engaged in violence accountable, and combating antisemitism in all forms," she said. "We have applied lessons learned from this spring's protests and continue to work to foster a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment."
Scarsi previously ordered the university to devise a plan to prevent discriminatory actions from taking place on campus.
The plaintiffs allege the so-called pro-Palestinian zones broke civil rights laws and discriminated against the university's Jewish students.
The plaintiffs' motion for the temporary injunction against the encampments discusses what it describes as "UCLA's ongoing and egregious failure to provide Jewish students with equal access and equal treatment on its campus." The Jewish students argue that their education is suffering because of the alleged discrimination and asked that the court provide relief "so they can safely return to campus for 2024-2025 classes."
There are about 2,500 undergraduate Jewish students at UCLA, representing 9.5% of the student body, and 500 Jewish graduate students, comprising 3.3% of the graduate student enrollment, according to Hillel at UCLA.
"No student should ever have to fear being blocked from their campus because they are Jewish," Yitzchok Frankel, a third-year law student at UCLA and one of the three plaintiffs in the suit, said Tuesday. "I am grateful that the court has ordered UCLA to put a stop to this shameful anti-Jewish conduct."
In the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing warfare, pro-Palestinian demonstrations emerged on college campuses nationwide. Attorneys for the plaintiffs alleged in court papers that by allowing the encampment on the Westwood campus, UCLA caused Jewish students and faculty to be barred from accessing parts of the campus "unless they agreed to disavow Israel's right to exist."
"Shame on UCLA for letting antisemitic thugs terrorize Jews on campus," said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket law firm and an attorney for the students. "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."
According to the plaintiffs, the activists -- many of them masked -- used checkpoints, issued wrist bands, built barriers, and often locked arms to prevent Jewish students from passing through.
For a week, the lawsuit contends, UCLA's administration was aware of these practices and chose to let them persist. The suit alleges that rather than clearing the encampment, UCLA instructed security staff to discourage unapproved students from attempting to cross through the areas blocked by the activists.
"If masked agitators had excluded any other marginalized group at UCLA, Gov. Gavin Newsom rightly would have sent in the National Guard immediately," Rienzi said previously. "But UCLA instead caved to the antisemitic activists and allowed its Jewish students to be segregated from the heart of their own campus. That is a profound and illegal failure of leadership."
Rienzi, whose firm filed the 34-page motion for an injunction, alleged that activists within the pro-Palestinian encampment targeted Jewish students.
Frankel claims he faced antisemitic harassment and was forced to abandon his regular routes through campus because of the so-called Jewish "exclusion zone," the lawsuit states.
Joshua Ghayoum, a sophomore and history major, says he was repeatedly blocked from accessing the library and other public spaces. Ghayoum alleges he heard chants at the encampment including "death to Jews," according to the suit.
The third plaintiff, law student Eden Shemuelian, alleges her final exam studies were severely compromised when she was forced to walk around the encampment and face antisemitic chants and signs to access the law school's library.
"It's appalling that an elite American university would actively support and encourage masked mobs of antisemites," Rienzi said. "UCLA's Jewish community needs to know that they'll be safe on campus before the start of the fall semester."
Police ultimately dismantled the UCLA encampment in an overnight operation that saw more than 200 people arrested.
Supporters of the demonstrators have accused officials of ignoring a violent attack on the encampment by counterprotesters on April 30, while being quick to arrest those sympathetic to the Palestinians.
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