Latest news with #ChadMizelle
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Justice Department launches investigation into allegations of antisemitism at UC
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has launched a civil rights investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the University of California, saying its attorneys believe there is a "potential pattern" of discrimination against Jewish employees at the state's flagship higher education system. The investigation would determine whether UC "engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its professors, staff and other employees by allowing an antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses," the department said in a statement. Reports of antisemitism have grown across the UC system since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's war in Gaza. The department's decision did not cite specific incidents at UC campuses and did not single out campuses aside from a brief mention of UCLA. UC officials were not immediately available to comment. "This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation's universities,' Atty. Gen. Pamela Bondi said in the statement. Chad Mizelle, acting associate attorney general and the department's chief of staff, in the statement cited a "disturbing rise of antisemitism at educational institutions in California and nationwide." The department said it would work with the Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, a multi-agency group established last month, to research UC. Task force member Leo Terrill, who is also a senior counsel in the Justice Department's civil rights unit, said in a statement that the post-Oct. 7 landscape has led to an "outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC." Terrill said that "the impact upon UC's students has been the subject of considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations. But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate." This story is developing and will be updated. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Justice Department launches investigation into allegations of antisemitism at UC
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has launched a civil rights investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the University of California, saying its attorneys believe there is a 'potential pattern' of discrimination against Jewish employees at the state's flagship higher education system. The investigation would determine whether UC 'engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its professors, staff and other employees by allowing an antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses,' the department said in a statement. Reports of antisemitism have grown across the UC system since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's war in Gaza. The department's decision did not cite specific incidents at UC campuses and did not single out campuses aside from a brief mention of UCLA. UC officials were not immediately available to comment. 'This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation's universities,' Atty. Gen. Pamela Bondi said in the statement. Chad Mizelle, acting associate attorney general and the department's chief of staff, cited a 'disturbing rise of antisemitism at educational institutions in California and nationwide' in the statement,. The department said it would work with the Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, a multi-agency group established last month, to research UC. Task force member Leo Terrill, who is also a senior counsel in the Justice Department's civil rights unit, said in a statement that the post-Oct. 7 landscape has led to an 'outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC.' Terrill said that 'the impact upon UC's students has been the subject of considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations. But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate.' This story is developing and will be updated.
Reuters
21-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US declares administrative law judge removal rules unconstitutional
WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has determined that multiple layers of removal restrictions shielding administrative law judges are unconstitutional and will no longer defend them in court, top officials said on Thursday. Chad Mizelle, the department's chief of staff, called the administrative law judges, who preside over administrative disputes in the federal government, "unelected and constitutionally unaccountable." In a letter to U.S. Senator Charles Grassley that Mizelle posted on X, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote that the Justice Department would no longer defend removal restrictions for administrative law judges against challenges in courts. The Justice Department's policy shift comes as Republican President Donald Trump and his ally, the billionaire Elon Musk, seek to reduce the power of several federal regulatory agencies. It also comes after several decisions curbing the authority of U.S. agencies by the U.S. Supreme Court, whose conservative justices have indicated skepticism toward expansive regulatory power. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected as unconstitutional the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's use of in-house administrative law judges to decide enforcement actions protecting investors from securities fraud. Conservative and business groups have said the SEC has an unfair advantage litigating cases before its own judges. Administrative judges operate separately from judges who preside over federal courts, who are known as Article III judges for the section of the U.S. Constitution that established the judiciary. Administrative judges adjudicate matters within agencies that come under the executive branch, which include the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Drug Enforcement Administration. A spokesperson for the Association of Administrative Law Judges, a union that represents 910 administrative law judges who adjudicate cases at the Social Security Administration, said the group was waiting for more information. Last week, the union asked a judge to block Musk and the Trump cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing their personal and employment records. The union said the disclosure of workers' personal information poses a security risk. Justice Department lawyers representing Musk and Doge said in court filing on Wednesday that DOGE and the other defendants had not made any public disclosure of sensitive personal records.
