Judge orders UCLA, Jewish students to draft plan for equal campus access in wake of protests

A federal judge Monday told UCLA and Jewish students who sued the university that they have one week to hash out a court-enforceable plan that would ensure equal access to campus for all if protests over the Israel-Hamas war or other disruptions erupt in the future.

The directive, issued during a hearing in downtown Los Angeles, followed a lawsuit three Jewish students filed last month against UCLA alleging that an April pro-Palestinian encampment violated their civil rights by illegally blocking them and other Jews from parts of campus, including the site of the camp, Royce Quad.

"Meet and confer to see if you can come up with some agreeable stipulated injunction or some other court order that would give both UCLA the flexibility it needs ... but also provide Jewish students on campus some reassurance that their free exercise rights are not going to play second fiddle to anything else," said U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi.

Both sides have until Monday to submit the plan. Scarsi said he would probably issue an injunction sometime next week.

The directive marks the first federal court intervention over UCLA's encampment after a volatile spring of divisive pro-Palestinian protests. It comes as the University of California Regents and campus leaders have signaled that they will no longer tolerate encampments and will enforce rules pertaining to protests.

UC President Michael V. Drake is working with UC leaders to draft a systemwide plan to bring all campuses into greater conformity about how to handle violations of rules around free speech activities. State lawmakers are withholding $25 million in state funding until Drake delivers a report on those efforts by Oct. 1.

UCLA student activists erected the encampment April 25, among the largest and most controversial of those that sprang up across U.S. colleges. A violent mob attacked it on April 30 amid delayed law enforcement intervention. Police dismantled the camp two days later, arresting about 210 people.

In the suit, three UCLA students in law and undergraduate schools said the university helped enforce a "Jew Exclusion Zone" by erecting bike rack barriers around the encampment and hiring security guards that allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to cross into the camp but blocked Jewish students .

UCLA lawyers contended student protesters, not the university, prevented access, and that campus security did not discriminate against Jewish students. The university said it blocked off the encampment to keep it from growing and that its plan was to de-escalate tensions to prevent violence before determining that it needed to bring in police.

Outside of the lawsuit, pro-Palestinian students and faculty activists have drawn a distinction, saying the encampment was anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish and that many protesters were Jewish. But to many other Jews, Zionism — the belief in a Jewish state in the ancestral Jewish homeland — is a key part of Jewish identity.

The Jewish students, represented by lawyers from the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asked Scarsi to issue an injunction that would prevent UCLA from applying "policies in a way that would give Jewish students less than full and equal access" to campus, such as during potential fall protests as the Israel-Hamas war approaches its one-year anniversary. They said that UCLA is legally required to ensure access of all students to campus, and it failed to do so for Jewish students.

UCLA said in filings and during Monday's hearing that the issue was moot.

Its lawyers contended that, since April, the university had shut down multiple encampments the same day they went up, and that it had developed a strict intolerance for protests that violated university rules, such as overnight camping.

The university has created a new campus safety office and hired a new police chief in response to missteps in the spring. UCLA lawyers acknowledged that the university has to follow federal law that prevents it from discriminating against Jewish students or other religious or ethnic groups.

At Monday's hearing, Scarsi appeared sympathetic to concerns of the Jewish students but hesitated to order UCLA to protect their campus access in the specific ways the students' lawyers requested. Instead, Scarsi said he was inclined to issue an order requiring UCLA to ensure campus access to all groups, including Jewish people.

Scarsi asked both sides to meet and propose agreed-upon wording for an injunction.

In an interview after the hearing, Mark Rienzi, president and chief executive of the Becket Fund, said he was pleased with the outcome. "We asked for an injunction and the judge has said he is in favor of one after we talk with UCLA," Rienzi said. "We need an order so 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 those who engaged in violence accountable, and combating antisemitism in all forms," Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor of strategic communications, said in a statement. "We have applied lessons learned from this spring’s protests and continue to work to foster a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment."

UC has grappled with the aftermath of pro-Palestinian protests across its campuses. Activism remained peaceful at some campuses and protests were shut down with no arrests, while others, most notably UCLA, became sites of arrests and violence. The university system has faced calls to aggressively respond to future protests.

“Moving forward, in close partnership with UC chancellors, President Drake is focused on learning from what transpired over the last few months and ensuring that we have more consistency across the system in how key policies are implemented and enforced," the president's office said last month in a statement to The Times.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .