US Justice Department sues UCLA alleging antisemitic educational environment

[u/awaythrowawaying]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-justice-department-sues-ucla-alleging-antisemitic-educational-environment-2026-05-26/

[u/justafutz]

UCLA said it didn’t do anything wrong because it claimed it had no control over the encampment (though a judge rejected that argument already).

But earlier in the case, as a federal judge explained, UCLA did not dispute (and thus already admitted) that Jews were excluded from campus based on their faith:

“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 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. 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.”

They may have claimed innocence of legal liability. They did not deny that Jews were excluded from campus because of their faith.

[u/justafutz → u/[deleted]]

I guess it’s you versus a federal judge, the testimony of Jews on campus, the UCLA task force on antisemitism, the people I personally know who were denied access because of their Jewishness, and mountains of evidence.

It’s funny though that you think simply saying “it never happened” works. I guess you are pushing alternative facts. Not me.

[u/justafutz → u/[deleted]]

Let's compare what you aid with what the federal judge said at the link I provided.

You:

It says students were denied access to an encampment in an outdoor quad by a group of protestors if they did not denounce support for the state of Israel

The judge:

Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith

You:

What it does NOT say is that Jews were blocked from accessing any "services" by the school on account of their religious beliefs.

The judge:

Here, UCLA made available certain of its programs, activities, and campus areas when certain students, including Plaintiffs, were excluded because of their genuinely held religious beliefs.

Among other things, the encampment protestors prevented the Plaintiffs from accessing portions of campus (which are services), including accessing the services of the library ("Similarly, Plaintiff Ghayoum was unable to access Powell Library because he understood that traversing the encampment, which blocked entrance to the library, carried a risk of violence"), and they were denied access to the services of the student union ("He also canceled plans to meet a friend at Ackerman Union after four protesters stopped him while he walked toward Janss Steps and repeatedly asked him if he had a wristband").

So it's weird you would completely ignore that the link says you're wrong while insisting that you're repeating what is in the link. The same is backed up by the antisemitism task force, which found that:

By April 30, students wearing a Star of David or a kippah, or those refusing to denounce their Zionism (which for many Jews, but not all, is akin to renouncing their Jewish faith), were physically blocked by the protesters’ phalanxes from entering or passing through the occupied area of Royce Quad, entering Royce Hall, or entering Powell Library.

[u/justafutz → u/[deleted]]

The "faith" that the judge is talking about is actually support for Israel. That's what the actual complaint is about: "News reporting indicates that the encampment's entrances were guarded by protesters, and people who supported the existence of the state of Israel were kept out of the encampment."

It's support for the idea that Jews deserve the right to self-determination, a core tenet of Judaism.

Supporting the state of Israel and being Jewish are not equivalent, so Jewish students were not being excluded from the encampment on account of being Jewish.

I guess you are telling Jews what their faith is. That's weird.

Also, the claim that they could not access the library is largely false. The encampment blocked off the North side of the library, but the South side was open; furthermore, the university police offered to escort any students who did not feel safe through or around the encampment.

Oh, okay. So you are just going to go ahead and tell the federal judge and antisemitism task force at UCLA they were wrong. Nice alternative facts.

Also of note: nearly all of the claims made by the student are that he was afraid of possibly being stopped or harassed, not that he was actually stopped or harassed.

Multiple students reported being stopped and harassed. And there were three students, not one, which shows you did not read the full opinion from the judge.

It's appalling how much you're misstating it. Read it.

[u/SmoothAnus → u/justafutz]

It's support for the idea that Jews deserve the right to self-determination, a core tenet of Judaism.

That is not what the protestors were protesting, so that's obviously not why the students would have been blocked from entering the encampment.

What you (and the judge) want to claim is that the students were blocked because they were Jewish, but the claims made by the plaintiffs themselves is that they were blocked because they were Zionists. Zionism is not merely the belief that Jews deserve the right to self-determination.

I guess you are telling Jews what their faith is. That's weird.

I am telling you, because you clearly don't know. Zionism is not a core tenant of Judaism.

Oh, okay. So you are just going to go ahead and tell the federal judge and antisemitism task force at UCLA they were wrong.

The judge used deliberately misleading wording, as I have pointed out.

Multiple students reported being stopped and harassed. And there were three students, not one, which shows you did not read the full opinion from the judge.

All of the plaintiffs are claiming they could not access the quad, which was probably true. They are also claiming they could not access the library because of the encampment, and that is false: the encampment only blocked the North side of the library, and the South side remained open. Furthermore, as I said and you ignored, campus police offered to escort any students who were fearful either through or around the encampment.

[u/justafutz → u/SmoothAnus]

You insulted me and insisted you know better than the federal judge, Jews generally, and then you claimed something about how police offered to escort Jews, amazingly, as if that’s a normal thing even if it was offered (it was not offered to all Jewish students being blocked, that’s for sure).

Good luck with your attempt to rewrite Judaism, Zionism, and literally what Jews saw and experienced on UCLA’s campus as explained by a federal judge.