It’s not a good look for the Regents of the University of California to almost immediately appeal a court order barring it from religious discrimination.

Especially when the preliminary injunction used language making clear the extent of UCLA’s breach of fundamental constitutional rights.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Scarsi, a Trump appointee, issued a remarkably pointed preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit by Jewish UCLA students, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, over the University’s failure to secure their civil rights.

The New York Post summarizes some of the judge’s strong language:

In a scathing, 16-page order, Scarsi blasted UCLA’s Board of Regents for openly maintaining in court proceedings thus far that it had “no responsibility” to defend Jewish students’ religious freedoms, since the anti-Israel tent cities — which sprang up on campuses nationwide including at Columbia University — were “engineered by third-party protesters.”

“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,” he wrote, partially in italics.

“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,” the judge added.

Here is what the judge ordered UCLA to do, summarized by Reason’s Eugene Volokh), who is also the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA:

[1.] Defendants [UCLA officials] … are prohibited from offering any ordinarily available programs, activities, or campus areas to students if Defendants know the ordinarily available programs, activities, or campus areas are not fully and equally accessible to Jewish students.

[2.] Defendants are prohibited from knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students from ordinarily available portions of UCLA's programs, activities, and campus areas, whether as a result of a de-escalation strategy or otherwise.

[3.] On or before August 15, 2024, Defendants shall instruct Student Affairs Mitigator/Monitor ("SAM") and any and all campus security teams (including without limitation UCPD and UCLA Security) that they are not to aid or participate in any obstruction of access for Jewish students to ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas.

[4.] For purposes of this order, all references to the exclusion of Jewish students shall include exclusion of Jewish students based on religious beliefs concerning the Jewish state of Israel.

[5.] Nothing in this order prevents Defendants from excluding Jewish students from ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas pursuant to UCLA code of conduct standards applicable to all UCLA students.

[6.] Absent a stay of this injunction by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, this preliminary injunction shall take effect on August 15, 2024, and remain in effect pending trial in this action or further order of this Court or the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

UCLA’s first PR response was focused on its own concerns, not the rights of the students it allowed to remain under siege:

Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement that the ruling “would improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs” of the student community.

“UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination, and harassment,” Osako added.

The leadership of America’s elite higher education is clearly in crisis, faced with a strong faction among both faculty and students intent on isolating and ultimately destroying Israel and bullying its supporters, especially those who have the temerity to openly practice and affirm their Jewish faith. In response, most seem unwilling to confront the aggressors and defend the bedrock principles of the Republic.

Just yesterday, the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, suddenly and unexpectedly resigned and announced she was leaving the country. 

Embattled Columbia University president Minouche Shafik suddenly resigned Wednesday and is escaping back to her home country after leading the elite institution for less than a year that was marked by constant — and sometimes destructive — anti-Israel protests. 

Shafik announced she would be “stepping down” from the Ivy League in a letter to the student body and blamed the “period of turmoil” for her shocking departure.

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik wrote.

“Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead. 

“I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.”

This last claim does not pass the laugh test. Classes begin at Columbia in two-and-a-half weeks.

Make no mistake, this is a moral crisis for higher education in this country, with its leadership mostly failing the test. There is no willingness to confront bullies that are willing to use force to get their way, and who fund lots of full tuition-paying foreign students, and who are supported by legions of leftist faculty that now dominate all but a small handful of universities and colleges.

Andrea Widburg adds:

What is so amazing is that the school used to be so Jewish — indeed, it may still be — that its nickname was “Jew CLA.” Stand With Us, an amazing organization, started at UCLA because the the parents saw it become anti-Semitic. The founders figured out that while the Jewish kids went to college to learn and enjoy the college experience, Muslim countries and anti-Semitic organizations were sending people there just to be activists. They did not care about grades or about the college experience. As students, their job was to spread anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments. Combine that with the increasingly leftist faculty, and you have a state funded institution that believes it has the right to discriminate against Jewish students.

Image: Beyond My Ken, via Wikimedia Commons // Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic