U.S. judge says UCLA failed to protect Jewish students, orders fair access to all of campus

A federal judge said the University of California, Los Angeles failed to protect the religious freedom of Jewish students earlier this year by allowing them to be excluded from certain parts of campus during protests.

U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday which orders the university — by Thursday — to direct its Student Affairs department and all campus police and security teams to not "aid or participate in any obstruction of access for Jewish students to ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas." Scarsi wrote this includes not allowing discrimination of Jewish students on the basis of their beliefs "concerning the Jewish state of Israel."

An attorney for the three Jewish students who filed the lawsuit on June 5 said it's the first of its kind in the wake of U.S. campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

"This is the first ruling of its kind in the country," wrote Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the nonprofit firm which represented the plaintiffs. "It doesn't allow the decision-makers at UCLA to keep treating the exclusion of Jews as an acceptable 'cost of doing business' when deciding how to address activist disruptions on campus."

Many universities across the U.S. have faced criticism over their handling of protests and encampments set up by supporters of Palestinians in the conflict, with allegations of discrimination and violent clashes at some schools.  

UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block, one of the defendants named in the lawsuit, faced an intense set of questioning and criticism from lawmakers who accused him of failing to protect Jewish and Palestinian students as well as protesters.

The lawsuit also names the UC Regents and UC President Michael Drake among other university leaders as defendants.

In his decision, Scarsi wrote that UCLA failed to uphold its constitutional obligation to Jewish students by allowing them to be excluded from certain parts of campus after the April 25 establishment of an encampment on university grounds by protesters supporting Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war. Scarsi wrote that the students were excluded "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," Scarsi wrote. "UCLA does not dispute this."

Rather, he wrote, UCLA has argued that the students were not excluded by the university itself directly. According to Scarsi's ruling, UCLA is constitutionally not allowed to offer services to some students that are not available to other students when the school is aware these other students are being excluded on the basis of their religion — even if that exclusion comes from outside actors.

Mary Osako, vice chancellor for strategic communications at UCLA, said the university works to ensure all students feel welcome. She said the recent ruling would "hamstring" its ability to respond to campus incidents. 

"UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination, and harassment," Osako said in a statement. "The district court's ruling would improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community."

"We're closely reviewing the Judge's ruling and considering all our options moving forward," she said. 

The preliminary order is to remain in effect until a potential trial or another order by the court or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  

Yitzchok Frankel, one of the plaintiffs, is a UCLA law student who is Jewish. Following the lawsuit's filing, he said he declined taking part in hosting a campus lunch gathering because he did not feel safe, the Associated Press reported.

"Under ordinary circumstances, I would have leapt at the chance to participate in this event," Frankel said. "My Jewish identity and religion are integral to who I am, and I believe it is important to mentor incoming students and encourage them to be proud of their Judaism, too."

The university was previously ordered to craft a safety plan to protect Jewish students in July, weeks after the lawsuit was first filed.

In Scarsi's ruling, he cites social media posts, news articles and sworn statements from the three Jewish students who filed the lawsuit as evidence they were barred from parts of campus. He wrote students were blocked from main pathways and areas such as Royce Quad, a major thoroughfare at the campus. Plywood and metal barriers were established around these areas, he wrote. 

When Chancellor Block testified before Congress in May, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) played a video appearing to show a Jewish student being blocked from walking down a pathway and asked him if the students in the video had been identified. 

Block said only that a memo was sent out to all of the campus community and Student Affairs was told to keep walkways open.

During that same hearing, the chancellor was accused by another lawmaker, Rep. Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (D-MN), of failing to protect Palestinian students and pro-Palestinian protesters as she called images of violence on the night of April 30 "appalling."