March 24, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – In response to legal action taken by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the United Auto Workers (UAW) Public Review Board ruled the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) cannot expel four Nassau County Legal Aid attorneys who opposed the ALAA’s virulently anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas resolution. The UAW Public Review Board is an outside body established under the UAW constitution to be the final word in interpreting and enforcing the UAW’s constitution. The ALAA (UAW Local 2325) is based in New York. Parallel to appealing the ALAA’s expulsion efforts within the UAW’s constitutional process, the Brandeis Center is representing three of the Legal Aid attorneys in a federal lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York. “This censure of the ALAA is well-deserved,” stated Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and an expert civil rights appointee who served in two presidential administrations. “Our federal lawsuit details how it is illegal to expel members who stand up for what’s right and oppose anti-Semitism in their union, and now the UAW’s own outside monitor has said that doing so violates the UAW’s own constitution. The board’s ruling is a major victory for union democracy, and, of course, a defeat for anti-Semitism. The Brandeis Center will defend victims of anti-Semitism wherever they are – on campuses, in public schools, in workplaces, or in unions.” The ALAA’s resolution, issued barely a month after the October 7, 2023 terrorist massacre in southern Israel, was a 1,147-word diatribe against the existence of the Jewish state that made only a seven-word glancing reference to the atrocities committed by Hamas. Uproar in response to this egregious statement echoed throughout the legal community, including from several non-profit legal services providers employing ALAA’s members, including the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County; the Legal Aid Society, which serves New York City; and the New York Legal Assistance Group. The Bronx Defenders issued a statement condemning a similarly anti-Semitic statement made by its chapter of the ALAA. After four Nassau County Legal Aid attorneys – three Jewish ALAA members and one Christian ally – filed a lawsuit in state court to stop the resolution, the ALAA attempted to expel them. The Brandeis Center immediately appealed the decision to the UAW International Executive Board, which ignored their members’ arguments and sustained the charges. The Brandeis Center then appealed to the UAW Public Review Board, composed of distinguished labor law professors. In July 2024, the Brandeis Center also filed a federal District Court complaint against the ALAA to prevent this retaliatory expulsion, which is still pending. This week the oversight board ruled in favor of the Nassau County Legal Aid Lawyers and nullified the union charges brought against them, dealing a major blow to the union’s anti-Israel activists. “Many ALAA members found the October 7 massacre of Jews exhilarating; they should find this rebuke from the UAW’s own outside review board sobering,” said Hon. Rory Lancman, the Brandeis Center’s Senior Counsel and a former Democratic NYS Assemblyman and NYC Councilman. “The ALAA’s Jewish and allied members, and their clients, deserve better than the giddy anti-Semitism and unabashed lawlessness that has consumed the ALAA since October 7, 2023, and we look forward to continuing the fight in federal court.” With incidents of anti-Semitism skyrocketing in the U.S., the Brandeis Center recently launched the Center for Legal Innovation (CLI) to serve as the first law firm to litigate exclusively against anti-Semitism in all sectors. Advisory board members include U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, Solicitor General Paul Clement, and chairmen and renowned litigators representing some of the nation’s most prestigious law firms, including Paul, Weiss; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; Holtzman Vogel; Schaerr | Jaffe LLP; Consovoy McCarthy; and Cooley and Susman Godfrey LLP. One of CLI’s first cases involves a disturbing incident where a Jewish father and his 5-year-old son were kicked out of an Oakland café for wearing a Star of David hat.