‘The Road to Recovery’: UCLA Drops Appeal of Federal Court Ruling That It Failed Jewish Students

‘We’re glad to see UCLA in full retreat. Appealing Judge Scarsi’s very reasonable order to stop discriminating against Jews was always a bad idea,’ attorney representing Jewish UCLA students responds.

By Blake Mauro, Washington Free Beacon

The University of California, Los Angeles dismissed its appeal to a judge’s devastating Aug. 13 ruling that found the school has failed in its responsibility to maintain equal access to programs, activities, and campus areas for Jewish and non-Jewish students alike.

UCLA has decided to pull its appeal, which the school originally filed this week, to a federal judge’s ruling against UCLA’s support for “Jewish Exclusion Zones” and anti-Semitic campus encampments. Mark Rienzi, an attorney for the three Jewish students who sued the college for “aiding and abetting a culture” of anti-Semitism, said UCLA’s decision signifies the first step on the “road to recovery.”

“We’re glad to see UCLA in full retreat. Appealing Judge Scarsi’s very reasonable order to stop discriminating against Jews was always a bad idea,” Rienzi said in a statement. “Dismissing that appeal is the first step on the road to recovery of a campus that welcomes all, including its Jewish students.”

Last week, U.S. district judge Mark Scarsi granted a preliminary injunction that forces UCLA to maintain equal access to programs, activities, or campus areas for Jewish and non-Jewish students alike. Scarsi’s decision slammed UCLA officials for claiming that they had “no responsibility” to defend Jewish students since the anti-Israel encampments—which were established on campuses nationwide—were “engineered by third-party protesters.”

“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 abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating.”

Scarsi’s Aug. 13 ruling is the first of its kind against a university pertaining to anti-Israel protests and could serve as a precedent against other anti-Semitic encampments at universities nationwide.

Numerous university presidents—including University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, Harvard University president Claudine Gay, and Columbia University president Minouche Shafik have been forced to resign in connection with the eruption of anti-Semitism on college campuses since Oct. 7.

In a statement to the Washington Free Beacon, UCLA spokeswoman Katherine Alvarado said the school will “forgo an appeal given UCLA’s own anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies and the current implementation of the directives issued by the UC Office of the President.”

“We will abide by the injunction as this case makes its way through the courts,” Alvarado added.