UCLA criticizes ruling that pro-Palestinian protesters can’t exclude Jews from campus
US judge finds Jewish students were blocked from parts of university ‘because they refused to denounce their faith… a fact so unimaginable and so abhorrent’ to First Amendment
By Andrew Lapin Today, 4:07 am
JTA — The University of California, Los Angeles, must take more decisive action to protect its Jewish students from any obstacles they encounter from pro-Palestinian protesters and encampments, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The temporary injunction, from US District Judge Mark Scarsi, is one of the most significant legal rulings to follow the spread of pro-Palestinian encampments, which protesters organized on campuses across the country last spring. It comes in response to a handful of Jewish students suing UCLA, alleging that they were briefly barred from entering a campus space that had been occupied this spring by people protesting Israel’s military ongoing campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
In his comments, the judge wrote that he was appalled at the state of campus affairs for Jewish students.
“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,” Scarsi wrote.
“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,” he added, with emphasis his.
US judge finds Jewish students were blocked from parts of university ‘because they refused to denounce their faith… a fact so unimaginable and so abhorrent’ to First Amendment
By Andrew Lapin Today, 4:07 am
JTA — The University of California, Los Angeles, must take more decisive action to protect its Jewish students from any obstacles they encounter from pro-Palestinian protesters and encampments, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The temporary injunction, from US District Judge Mark Scarsi, is one of the most significant legal rulings to follow the spread of pro-Palestinian encampments, which protesters organized on campuses across the country last spring. It comes in response to a handful of Jewish students suing UCLA, alleging that they were briefly barred from entering a campus space that had been occupied this spring by people protesting Israel’s military ongoing campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
In his comments, the judge wrote that he was appalled at the state of campus affairs for Jewish students.
“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,” Scarsi wrote.
“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,” he added, with emphasis his.
