Mark L. Rienzi, professor and co-director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Catholic Law, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board in an opinion piece concerning the resignation of Columbia University’s president and the issuing of a court injunction against UCLA. Both schools have recently been confronted by allegations of antisemitism on their campuses.

In the lawsuit that resulted in the injunction, Rienzi—who in addition to his role at Catholic Law serves as president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—is one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, Jewish students who encountered harassment and obstructed access to UCLA’s campus during protests in the spring of 2024.

Wall Street Journal
Date: August 15, 2024
By: The Editorial Board
“Still Paying for Anti-Israel Campus Protest Chaos”

. . .

As colleges consider how to handle new anti-Israel protests when students return in the fall, note that this spring’s bedlam is still being cleaned up. On Tuesday students at the University of California, Los Angeles, won an injunction after suing over what they called a campus “Jew Exclusion Zone.” A day later Columbia University President Minouche Shafik quit.

. . .

“At these checkpoints, students were frequently asked if they were a ‘Zionist,’” said the lawsuit filed in June by three Jewish UCLA students, who are represented by the nonprofit Becket Fund religious-liberty law firm. “Others were denied passage simply for wearing a Star of David necklace.”

Mark Rienzi, the Becket Fund’s president and a Catholic University law professor, says the injunction will be felt far beyond UCLA. “Every public institution in America,” he says, “is now on notice that allowing or assisting this kind of mistreatment of Jews violates the Constitution.” It’s the first court ruling against a university with regard to the encampments, but it might not be the last.

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