DOJ Probes University of Michigan for Workplace Antisemitism

The Justice Department is eyeing investigations into the University of California system and University of Michigan over their treatment of Jewish employees, as the Trump administration moves to abandon racial discrimination cases at local fire and police departments.

The department requested attorneys to work “immediately” on so-called Section 707 investigations into the employment practices at the two universities, which involve “allegations that Jewish employees have been subjected to a hostile work environment,” according to an internal DOJ email sent by a civil rights division supervisor, viewed by Bloomberg Law.

Section 707 investigations examine if an employer has a pattern or practice of discrimination.

The Wednesday email, titled “Assignment opportunity—SHORT TURNAROUND,” asks for trial attorneys interested in assisting with the two investigations, which “need immediate staffing,” to express interest by Thursday.

The email reflects an aggressive push to implement a Trump executive order that had already led to the formation Feb. 3 of a civil rights task force to combat antisemitism.

The office is also working “in the pre-referral context on charges filed against both universities,” the email said, indicating that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has not yet formally referred the matter to DOJ.

The cases are part of the section’s religious discrimination initiative “to expand the breadth and impact of its enforcement in this priority area,” the email said.

Cases alleging a hostile work environment are already among the most difficult cases to bring under Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, which bans employment discrimination, said Mikael Rojas, former senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Biden administration. And those investigating if an employer has a pattern or practice of the conduct are even more complex, he said.

“It is rare to rush a systematic pattern or practice investigation. It would be out of the ordinary to fast-track a type of case like this, instead of letting it play out through the EEOC process,” Rojas said.

The email highlighting the department’s focus on religious discrimination came the same day that the Justice Department announced Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered the civil rights division to dismiss lawsuits challenging firefighters’ and police departments’ hiring practices.

“American communities deserve firefighters and police officers to be chosen for their skill and dedication to public safety—not to meet DEI quotas,” Bondi said in a statement, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that President Donald Trump has banned.

Maryland’s police department had already agreed last year to pay $2.75 million to resolve the Justice Department’s claims that it used a written test for state troopers that discriminates against Black candidates and a physical test that discriminates against women. The Justice Department filed a request Feb. 25 to postpone proceedings in that case while the department considers how the proposed settlement aligns with its objectives.

The department also filed a dismissal notice Feb. 25 in litigation against Durham, North Carolina, over its written test for applications that had also already reached a settlement.

Cases involving employers with a pattern or practice of discrimination are “among the employment litigation section’s most important work,” said Rojas, now counsel at Outten & Golden.

“For the attorney general to characterize existing cases against police departments and fire departments as somehow meritless, instead of somehow being examples of traditional enforcement of Title 7, is really disturbing,” he said.

Trump issued an executive order last month calling on federal agencies to crack down on antisemitism, and Bondi issued a department-wide memo Feb. 5 calling on employees to “thoroughly evaluate” settlements in light of that directive.

The Department of Education has also announced investigations into alleged antisemitism at five universities, including Columbia University, the site of prominent pro-Palestine protests last year. The University of California, Berkeley is on that list, but not the University of Michigan.