The University of California, Los Angeles is dropping its effort to appeal a federal court order commanding the school to prevent antisemitic discrimination against its Jewish students. 

The court order, issued last week, marked the first of its kind in holding an American university responsible for permitting antisemitic and anti-Israel encampments to exist on campus. 

The three Jewish UCLA students behind the suit alleged that anti-Israel activists would prevent students “who refused to disavow Israel” to enter areas in the heart of campus, effectively establishing  “Jew exclusion zones” across the university grounds. 

In a 16-page ruling, the presiding judge denounced the school for allowing Jewish students to be subject to such discriminatory treatment on the basis of their faith, adding, “This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating.” 

The university filed an appeal shortly thereafter, claiming that the judge’s orders would “improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community.” 

One of the lawyers representing the three Jewish UCLA students, Mark Rienzi, who is also the president of the law firm behind the lawsuit, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, described the statement as “outrageous.” 

“When someone says, ‘Don’t discriminate against the Jews,’ or, ‘Don’t discriminate against any other group,’ the answer shouldn’t be, ‘Gosh, that’s going to hamstring me.’ The answer should be, ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to discriminate against the Jews,’” Mr. Rienzi told the Sun. 

On Friday morning, the university said it chose to drop the appeal effort. 

“UCLA is committed to fostering an environment where every member of our community is safe and feels welcome. We are in full alignment with the court on that point,” UCLA said in a statement first shared with Politico. 

Mr. Rienzi welcomed the decision to drop the appeal. “We’re glad to see UCLA in full retreat,” he said in a statement released on Friday morning. “Appealing Judge Scarsi’s very reasonable order to stop discriminating against Jews was always a bad idea.” 

“Dismissing that appeal is the first step on the road to recovery of a campus that welcomes all, including its Jewish students,” he added. 

While the university did not offer guidance as to what motivated its change of heart, the decision comes just a few days after the University of California president released a statement offering various “measures” meant to “strengthen and clarify” the policies and procedures surrounding free speech across the 10-campus university system.  

Some community members took the statement, which lists suggestions for clarifying and reinforcing prohibitions on encampments and identity concealments, as a de-facto encampment ban.