The Trump administration on Tuesday sued the University of California, alleging that UCLA administrators have “routinely ignored” and “failed to report” employee complaints of antisemitism since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza spurred a surge in pro-Palestinian campus activism.
The Department of Justice alleged in court documents that UCLA has an ongoing, “severe and pervasive” antisemitism problem, citing pro-Palestinian protests — including one in January — that it contends are anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli.
“Based on our investigation, UCLA administrators allegedly allowed virulent anti-Semitism to flourish on campus, harming students and staff alike,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement Tuesday. “Today’s lawsuit underscores that this Department of Justice stands strong against hate and antisemitism in all its vile forms.”
A UCLA spokeswoman said the university stands “firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms, and we will vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community.”
“As Chancellor [Julio] Frenk has made clear: Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or anywhere,” Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement. “Under his leadership, UCLA has taken concrete and significant steps to strengthen campus safety, enforce policies, and combat antisemitism in a systemic and sustained manner.”
The 81-page federal suit, filed in California’s Central District, represents a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s actions against UC, which have included multiple civil rights investigations launched since 2025 into the system or individual campuses.
In August, the Trump administration demanded that UC pay nearly $1.2 billion to settle civil rights investigations into UCLA related to complaints of antisemitism against students and employees, allegations of race-based affirmative action and the recognition of transgender people’s gender identities on campus.
UC President James B. Milliken said at the time that the payment would “completely devastate” the system. The government proposed the fine after suspending $584 million in federal science, health and energy research grants to UCLA over alleged civil rights violations.
Federal lawsuits by UC workers have since resulted in a San Francisco-based federal judge issuing temporary orders to restore UCLA grants and block wide swaths of the settlement. The court order also broadly criticized Trump administration proposals for the Westwood campus to ideologically screen foreign student applicants, limit protest rights, disavow the recognition of transgender people, end race-related scholarships, halt gender-affirming care for minors and share personnel files with the government.
The two suits — UC is not a party to them — continue to be litigated in court.
UC leaders have said they are open to talks with the government over civil rights concerns. Milliken has said he will protect the “freedom to teach, learn, and research without outside interference.”
Tuesday’s suit stems from an investigation the department launched last March into allegations of workplace antisemitism at the University of California. At the time, government attorneys said they believed there was a “potential pattern” of discrimination against Jewish employees.
While the investigation focused on the UC system, the lawsuit is about findings at UCLA. The suit does not cover other Trump administration allegations from last summer against UCLA, including those of discrimination against Jewish students, cisgender women in sports, and white and Asian American students in admissions. The university has said it follows the law in each area.
In a statement, U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon said that the “litany of vile acts of antisemitism that allegedly took place, and continue to take place, at UCLA are, if found to be true, a mark of shame against the University of California.” Dhillon heads the Civil Rights Division, which is overseeing the UCLA investigation.
Much of Tuesday’s suit focuses on the spring of 2024, when increasingly tumultuous protests over Israel’s war in Gaza racked UCLA. Jewish students and faculty reported “broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus,” a UCLA antisemitism task force found.
A group later sued, charging that UCLA violated their civil rights, and won millions of dollars and concessions in a settlement. UCLA avoided trial, but the suit formed a basis for the UC investigations and was cited in the new lawsuit.
There have been several campus changes since then, including a ban on using masks to shield identity while breaking campus policies — including overnight encampments without permits. Last year UCLA suspended Students for Justice in Palestine as a campus group after it found the group to be associated with vandalizing a UC regent’s property. Complaints have persisted from pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups that policies are unevenly enforced.
“Although UCLA has made limited changes to address the general hostilities affecting Jewish and Israeli employees that existed on campus during the 2023 to 2024 academic year, UCLA has not sufficiently addressed the systemic ongoing issues related to preventing and correcting individual employee complaints of antisemitism,” Tuesday’s suit said.
