A federal judge on Monday told UCLA and the Jewish students who sued the university that they have one week to come up with a court-enforceable plan that would ensure equal access to campus for all if protests against Israel’s war with Hamas or other disruptions break out in the future.
The directive, issued at a hearing in downtown Los Angeles, follows a lawsuit filed last month by three Jewish students against UCLA, alleging that a pro-Palestinian encampment in April violated their civil rights by illegally blocking them and other Jews from parts of campus, including the site of the encampment, Royce Quad.
“Meet and discuss to see if you can find an acceptable stipulated injunction or other court order that would give UCLA the flexibility it needs … but also give Jewish students on campus the assurance that their free exercise rights will not play a secondary role to anything else,” U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi said.
Both sides have until Monday to submit their plan. Scarsi said he would likely issue an injunction next week.
The directive marks the first federal court action on the UCLA encampment after a volatile spring of divisive pro-Palestinian protests. It comes as UCLA regents and campus leaders have signaled they will no longer tolerate the encampments and will enforce rules around protests.
UC President Michael V. Drake is working with university leaders to develop a systemwide plan to bring all campuses into compliance on how to handle violations of free speech rules. State lawmakers are withholding $25 million in state funding until Drake delivers a report on those efforts by Oct. 1.
On April 25, UCLA student activists set up the encampment, one of the largest and most controversial to emerge at American universities. A violent mob attacked it on April 30, with law enforcement failing to intervene. Police dismantled the encampment two days later, arresting about 210 people.
In the complaint, three UCLA law and undergraduate students said the university helped enforce a “Jewish exclusion zone” by erecting bicycle barriers around the encampment and hiring security guards who allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to pass through the camp but blocked Jewish students.
UCLA lawyers have argued that student protesters, not the university, blocked access to campus, and that campus security did not discriminate against Jewish students. The university has said it blocked the encampment to prevent it from growing and that its plan was to de-escalate tensions to prevent violence before determining whether it needed to call in the police.
Outside the trial, students and pro-Palestinian activists have made a distinction, saying the encampment was anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish and that many of the protesters were Jewish. But for many other Jews, Zionism — the belief in a Jewish state in the Jewish ancestral homeland — is a key part of Jewish identity.
The Jewish students, represented by attorneys from the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asked Scarsi to issue an injunction that would prevent UCLA from implementing “policies that would give Jewish students less than full and equal access” to campus, such as during potential protests next fall, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas. They said UCLA is legally required to provide all students with access to campus, and it has failed to do so for Jewish students.
UCLA said in filings and at Monday’s hearing that the issue was moot.
His lawyers argued that since April, the university had closed several encampments the same day they were set up and had developed a strict intolerance for protests that violated university rules, such as overnight camping.
The university created a new campus security office and hired a new police chief in response to the spring misconduct. UCLA lawyers have acknowledged that the university must comply with federal law that prevents it from discriminating against Jewish students or other religious or ethnic groups.
At Monday’s hearing, Scarsi appeared sympathetic to the Jewish students’ concerns but hesitated to order UCLA to protect access to campus in the specific manner requested by the students’ attorneys. Instead, Scarsi said he was inclined to issue an order requiring UCLA to guarantee access to campus for all groups, including Jews.
Scarsi asked the two sides to meet and come up with an agreed text for an injunction.
In an interview after the hearing, Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of the Becket Fund, said he was pleased with the outcome. “We asked for an injunction and the judge said he was supportive of that after we talked to UCLA,” Rienzi said. “We need an injunction so that Jewish students can be protected.”
Although the lawsuit named the UC regents and Drake, a UC spokeswoman directed the Times to UCLA for comment.
“UCLA is committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus, holding perpetrators accountable, and combating anti-Semitism in all its forms,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement. “We have applied the lessons learned from this spring’s protests and continue to work to foster a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from bullying, discrimination, and harassment.”
The University of California has had to deal with the fallout from pro-Palestinian protests on its campuses. Activism has remained peaceful on some campuses and protests have been suppressed without arrests, while others, notably UCLA, have seen arrests and violence. The university system has faced calls to respond aggressively to future protests.
“Going forward, in close partnership with UC chancellors, President Drake will work to learn from what has happened in recent months and ensure that we have more consistency across the system in how key policies are implemented and enforced,” the president’s office said in a statement to The Times last month.
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