Published by JNS on 1/26/2026 Two lawsuits alleging antisemitism—one involving Stanford University and another tied to the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles—will move forward, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law announced on Jan. 22. The Stanford case stems from a July lawsuit filed by the Brandeis Center on behalf of Shay Laps, a Jewish Israeli researcher who alleges that he faced “discrimination and insidious, malicious conduct intended to permanently tarnish his reputation and career” at a Stanford lab, including tampering with his research, being locked out of a lab and a fabricated sexual harassment complaint against him. In a ruling issued on Jan. 20, Susan van Keulen, a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, stated that Laps plausibly alleged a defamation claim against Danny Chou, an associate pediatrics professor at the private university who ran the lab. According to the suit, Chou allegedly told at least one university researcher that Laps wasn’t in the lab due to a “legal licensing” issue with his work, suggesting wrongdoing, and implied there was a Title IX sexual-harassment investigation against Laps. Van Keulen also ruled that Laps may refile an amended discrimination claim after correcting a “citation error” for a secondary claim within the California Education Code the identifies discrimination in educational institutions. The second lawsuit, filed in April on behalf of four Jewish community members, targets activists connected to the UCLA encampment. The lawsuit alleges organizers created a “Jew exclusion zone” enforced “by the concrete threat of physical violence.” Mark Scarsi, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ruled on Jan. 20 that the UCLA suit can move forward against two of the defendants: National Students for Justice in Palestine and the People’s City Council. The complaint describes repeated acts of violence and exclusion targeting Jews, widespread antisemitic imagery and slogans and efforts to establish new encampments near buildings named for Jews. The suit also alleges that both groups had organizers on the ground helping lead the encampment. “The court is satisfied that plaintiffs have pleaded sufficient facts to raise an inference that NSJP and PCC acted with the requisite discriminatory animus,” Scarsi wrote. However, Scarsi dismissed the case against several other defendants, including the WESPAC Foundation and American Muslims for Palestine, as well as Hatem Bazian and Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP’s national board chair and executive director, respectively. Scarsi ruled that while WESPAC has a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the student group, there is no evidence that it exercised control over the UCLA encampment. He also found no evidence that American Muslims for Palestine or its leaders were involved in the UCLA actions cited in the complaint. “These cases showcase the wide reach and impact of increased antisemitism on campuses in California, and we are gratified that the court recognizes the gravity of the claims alleged in both,” stated Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. assistant secretary of education for civil rights. “These decisions provide hope that strong, well-argued claims can have success even against powerful, well-funded organizations and higher education institutions,” Marcus added. “They show us that it is possible for the Jewish community to prevail in court, and we shouldn’t hesitate to use litigation to protect our rights when it is appropriate.”