The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the University of California, targeting UCLA over its response to a pro-Palestinian encampment that took over Dickson Plaza in spring 2024. The 53-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges the university was “deliberately indifferent” to harassment and discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
The suit marks the second time the Trump administration has taken legal aim at the UC system over antisemitism concerns. The DOJ filed a separate lawsuit in February alleging the university allowed a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli employees. A civil rights investigation into the UC’s handling of antisemitism complaints also opened in May 2025.
At the center of the new complaint is the Dickson Plaza encampment, which protesters established in April 2024 to pressure the university to divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military. The DOJ claims masked demonstrators physically attacked Jewish students and that the university’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion ignored more than 100 related complaints. The lawsuit also alleges the encampment blocked Jewish and Israeli students from accessing academic buildings. UCLA declared the encampment unlawful on April 30, 2024, and police cleared it May 2, arresting more than 200 people.
Encampment organizers have disputed the characterization that the protest was antisemitic, noting that Jewish students participated and that Jewish holidays were observed within the encampment.
The DOJ is asking the court to find that UCLA is not entitled to federal grant payments and to order repayment of grants dating back to October 7, 2023. “The Department of Justice calls UCLA to account for its toleration of the equally appalling hostile educational environment against its Jewish and Israeli students,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon in a Tuesday press release.
UCLA officials pushed back forcefully. Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose Jewish paternal family fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, rejected the claim that the university has failed to act. “Combating antisemitism is a moral imperative — one rooted, for me, in personal history that makes indifference unthinkable,” he said in a statement. He pointed to a reorganized civil rights office, a newly hired associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, and a dedicated Title VI officer as evidence of the school’s commitment.
UC President James Milliken was similarly blunt about the lawsuit’s utility. “The Board of Regents and administrative leadership have been unequivocal: antisemitism has no place at the University of California,” he said in an emailed statement. “We have instituted numerous systemwide reforms and programs to promote safety and combat antisemitism on our campuses.” He added that the legal action would not help those efforts.
UCLA Pushes Back as DOJ Files Second Antisemitism Suit Over Handling of Campus ProtestsThe university has additional credibility to draw on. UCLA paid $6 million in a settlement last summer over discrimination claims involving Jewish faculty and students, and this year improved its rating on the Anti-Defamation League’s annual campus antisemitism report card from a D to a B.
Whether the lawsuit reflects a genuine effort to protect students or is better understood as part of the administration’s broader campaign against higher education institutions remains a central question — and one the courts will ultimately have to weigh.
