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Trump can’t levy antisemitism fines against the University of California, judge rules
(JTA) — A federal judge has indefinitely barred the Trump administration from leveling a fine in excess of $1 billion against the University of California system for failures in addressing campus antisemitism.
Calling the administration’s strong-arming of the UC system “coercive and retaliatory,” U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that federal investigators had failed to follow standard protocol for Title VI civil rights investigations.
Lin’s preliminary injunction came as the UC system continues to negotiate a planned settlement with the administration related to antisemitism investigations.
Much of the Trump administration’s case against UC involves UCLA, which in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks became a hotbed of campus conflicts over Israel. Student protesters barred “Zionists” from entering certain sections of campus; brawls also broke out with pro-Israel counter-protesters. The university settled with a group of Jewish students this summer, but Trump has continued to push aggressive fines over the objections of a contingent of its Jewish community.
A growing number of other universities, including, most recently, Cornell and the University of Virginia, have also signed deals with Trump to preserve federal funding and end antisemitism investigations. UC leaders have said the Trump-imposed fines are an existential threat to the school. A federal judge had previously ordered the reversal of Trump’s funding freeze to Harvard for similar stated reasoning around antisemitism.
University staffers and academic groups had sued the administration, saying that Trump’s actions were already having a punishing effect on their First Amendment concerns.
“Rooting out antisemitism is undisputedly a laudable and important goal,” Lin wrote in her decision. “However, the unrebutted evidence shows that the Task Force Agencies and the Funding Agencies have gone well beyond that stated purpose.”
Lin continued, “The record shows that Defendants engaged in a concerted policy to use allegations of antisemitism to justify funding cancellations, when their intent is to coerce universities into purging disfavored ‘left’ and ‘woke’ viewpoints from their campuses and replace them with views that the Administration favors.”
In a New York Times story this week about staffers who recently resigned or were fired from the Justice Department, a former lawyer in the Civil Rights Division, Ejaz Baluch, said his colleagues found that pro-Israel professors at UCLA were harassed and the school’s complaint process was flawed. But Baluch felt the fine sought by the administration was disproportionate. “We thought, $1 billion? They are making that up out of thin air,” said Baluch. “There is no way the damages we found added up to anything like that amount.”
Lin’s ruling also came amid a growing antisemitism controversy on another UC campus. UC Berkeley protesters last week chanted “Zionists out” and “Free Palestine,” with some wearing keffiyehs, as part of a larger demonstration against an event staged by right-wing group Turning Point USA, the group founded by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. At least four people were arrested during the protests, with injuries also reported. One Jewish UC Berkeley student told the Jewish News of Northern California she was targeted with antisemitic taunts from protesters.
On Monday the Justice Department and the FBI launched an investigation into the protests.
The post Trump can’t levy antisemitism fines against the University of California, judge rules appeared first on The Forward.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.