Judge rules UCLA must prevent protests from blocking Jewish students’ access to class

A federal judge ruled Tuesday the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) cannot allow Jewish students to be blocked from classes, school buildings or campus activities.  

UCLA was sued by three Jewish students after Gaza protesters set up check points on campus in the spring, only allowing through students through who wore wristbands and supported their cause.  

Judge Mark Scarsi issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the school from offering programs or activities on campus when they know the pathway is blocked to Jewish students.  

“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,” Scarsi wrote.  

“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,” the judge added.

UCLA leadership called the ruling “improper.”

“U.C.L.A. is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said, according to The New York Times. “The district court’s ruling is improper and would hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground.” 

The complaint from the Jewish students said the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus would not allow individuals in if they wore the Star of David.  

The protests in the spring occurred on campuses across the nation, with more than 2,000 individuals arrested.  

Multiple universities have been sued for their responses to the protests, with a judge in Massachusetts recently letting an antisemitism case against Harvard proceed and saying the Ivy League “failed its Jewish students.”