{"id":227526,"date":"2026-03-19T22:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/227526\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:18:07","slug":"uc-berkeley-settles-lawsuit-over-accusations-of-antisemetic-policy-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/227526\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley settles lawsuit over accusations of antisemetic policy \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a $1 million settlement announced Thursday<\/a>, the University of California at Berkeley agreed to rescind bylaws that barred speakers who support Zionism from student-held events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement reflects UC Berkeley\u2019s long-standing values and objectives when it comes to combatting abhorrent antisemitic expression, harassment, and discrimination when it occurs on the Berkeley campus,\u201d the university said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

The agreement concludes a 2023 lawsuit filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center<\/a>, a nonprofit legal organization that advocates for Jewish civil and human rights, against UC Berkeley, the campus\u2019s law school, and the University of California Board of Regents.<\/p>\n

The settlement comes just months after UC Berkeley reached a separate settlement with the Brandeis Center<\/a> and agreed to pay an Israeli researcher $60,000 after admitting to discriminating against her over her nationality.<\/p>\n

The 2023 lawsuit alleged a \u201clongstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism\u201d at UC Berkeley following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. The suit specifically called out the campus and law school for allowing \u201cat least 23\u201d student organizations to adopt bylaws refusing to invite speakers who support Zionism \u2014 a movement that supports the state of Israel\u2019s right to exist in the region of Palestine.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs equated the anti-Zionist student group policies to antisemitism, arguing anti-Zionism discriminates against those \u201cwho recognize the Jews\u2019 ancestral heritage\u2026as key components of their Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Law Students for Justice in Palestine, a Berkeley graduate student group, adopted a bylaw in August of 2023 excluding any speaker who \u201cexpressed and continued to hold views or host\/sponsor\/promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel and the occupation of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The policy sparked criticism, including from UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinksy, who condemned the bylaw in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In it, Chemerinksy said for many Jewish community members, including himself, the policy \u201cwas felt as antisemitism\u201d and said while he felt \u201cthe bylaw was inconsistent\u201d with the school\u2019s values, he supported the student groups\u2019 first amendment right to reject views they oppose.<\/p>\n

As part of the settlement, UC Berkeley agreed to rescind all discriminatory bylaws and to ensure that registered student organizations, journals and clinics cannot exclude persons from membership, leadership, participation, or speaking regardless of their support for Israel or Zionism, the Brandeis Center said Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the law school\u2019s community Thursday, Chemerinksy acknowledged the settlement agreement and said his \u201cposition since this issue emerged has not wavered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that student organizations have the First Amendment right to choose speakers based on their views, but I believe that these bylaws are inconsistent with the Law School\u2019s commitment to be a place where all ideas and views can be expressed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chemerinsky advised the community that under the settlement agreement, student organizations may continue to have adopted policies that restrict who they will invite to speak, but those policies cannot be within their group\u2019s bylaws.<\/p>\n

Under the settlement, the university will pay the Brandeis Center $1 million for attorney fees and legal costs. The university also agreed to continue to\u00a0enforce rules that govern expressive activities on the campus, prohibit discrimination and harassment under UC\u2019s Anti-Discrimination Policy, reject calls for boycotts against and divestment from Israel, expand academic offerings in both Jewish and Israeli studies and maintain antisemitism training and education provided to students, staff and faculty.<\/p>\n

UC Berkeley said Thursday that since the lawsuit was filed in 2023, the university has taken significant steps to build upon its existing policies, programs and practices that address discrimination and harassment against Jews and Israelis. UC Berkeley said the campus has also taken steps to support the quality of Jewish life on campus, which the university noted was described as \u201cexcellent\u201d in the latest Campus Antisemitism Report Card by the Anti-Defamation League<\/a> \u2014 an initiative that assesses the current state of antisemitism on school campuses across the country and how universities and colleges are responding.<\/p>\n

In a statement Thursday, Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center, said a \u201cban on Zionist Jewish voices\u201d and \u201cwidespread hostile environment(s)\u201d will no longer be tolerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a UC Berkeley alumnus, I am glad that we can finally resolve this long battle with a victory for Jewish American students and for all Americans who care about free speech and fairness,\u201d said Marcus, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who ran the Office for Civil Rights but stepped down amid complaints he used the office to further his personal and political agenda.<\/a> \u201cWe will fight this bigotry wherever and whenever we find it, and we will win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a $1 million settlement announced Thursday, the University of California at Berkeley agreed to rescind bylaws that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,764,7,8,332,15,340,842,181,1016,100,143,145,144,149],"class_list":["post-227526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-berkeley","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-east-bay","tag-education","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lawsuits","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}