The Department of Justice sues the University of California, alleging that the school failed to protect Jewish employees from hostility

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is suing the University of California over allegations that UC failed to protect Jewish employees from anti-Semitic harassment amid pro-Palestinian protests that rocked the campus in 2023 and 2024.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California, is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to punish major universities it says have been soft on anti-Semitism. The lawsuit accuses UCLA of failing to discipline those who participated in the protests, including dozens who were arrested in 2024 for not leaving the campus encampment.

Trump officials previously determined that UC failed to protect Jewish students, and last year UC reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university. The new lawsuit alleges that the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees is “much deeper” than the positions addressed by the settlements.

“The United States will now do what UC has thus far failed to do: protect Jewish and Israeli employees” from anti-Semitic harassment, the lawsuit said.

The University of California said Tuesday it has taken “concrete and significant steps” to strengthen campus security, enforce policies and combat anti-Semitism. He did not mention the lawsuit filed by the federal government.

“Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or anywhere else,” Mary Osako, the university’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in the statement.

Much of the federal complaint focuses on the 2024 protest camp that federal officials say denied Jewish employees and students access to parts of campus and included anti-Semitic signs and chants. One night, counter-protesters attacked the camp, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray. The fighting continued for hours, wounding more than a dozen people, before police intervened. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.

The 81-page lawsuit alleges that UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the camp and accuses the university of failing to discipline any students, faculty or staff for anti-Semitic behavior.

The Justice Department alleges in the lawsuit that “UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — blatant anti-Semitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its terrified Jewish and Israeli employees.”

The lawsuit asks the judge to force UC to enforce its anti-discrimination policies and “award damages,” without specifying an amount, to Jewish UC employees who faced a hostile work environment.

The university said it has taken several steps toward improving campus safety and inclusivity, including establishing an Office of Campus and Community Safety and new policies for managing protests on campus. UC Chancellor Julio Frink, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled to Mexico to escape Nazi Germany and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, has launched an initiative to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias.

“We stand firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat anti-Semitism in all its forms, and will vigorously defend our efforts and our steadfast commitment to providing a safe and inclusive environment for all members of our community,” Osaka said in the university’s statement.

The Trump administration has focused primarily on elite private universities in its campaign to win the obedience of universities it accuses of liberal bias and anti-Semitism. UCLA is one of the few public universities targeted in this effort.

Last summer, the Trump administration said it was seeking $1 billion from UCLA as part of a settlement to end the federal audit. Trump officials had cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for the university, though a federal judge ordered the money restored in September. In November, the same judge blocked the federal government from imposing fines on the University of California.

Gecker reported from San Francisco.