In a stand for free speech, a coalition made up of the Young America’s Foundation and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) students and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) members is standing up against an administration that has chosen to cave in to the demands of a pro-Hamas mob intent on silencing pro-Israel voices. As anyone watching the news knows, during the 2023-24 school year UCLA became a hotbed of anti-Israel and antisemitic activism. While the activists have the right to express their views, however wrongheaded, they do not have the right to shout down pro-Israel speakers, to establish illegal “encampments” in the quad, or to exclude Jewish students from classrooms and libraries. UCLA’s leaders know all of this and know that they have every right to stop the agitators when they step over the line. Yet they did nothing as agitators broke every law in the book.
Even worse, UCLA’s leaders helped the activist mob when it rallied against a speech by a conservative pro-Israel speaker invited to campus by YAF. After weeks of careful preparation, at the last minute, UCLA caved in to the mob and locked the lecture hall doors on YAF and its speaker, citing pretextual “security concerns.” But UCLA knew all along that activists would attempt to disrupt the talk. Indeed, these were the same activists who UCLA had been coddling and encouraging in their illegal encampment only days before. UCLA was not surprised by the situation and did not shut the talk down out of genuine concerns. They shut it down because UCLA agrees with the activists.
But as a public university, supported by taxpayer dollars, UCLA cannot choose sides on issues like these. UCLA’s discrimination against the pro-Israel point of view was a clear violation of the First Amendment. Now, these brave young advocates for liberty are fighting back.
Case Summary
In Young America’s Foundation v. University of California, Los Angeles, Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) is defending the fundamental right to free speech at one of the nation’s most prominent universities. The plaintiffs, Young America’s Foundation, along with YAF members—Macy Roepke, and Brooke Broll—are bold advocates for conservative values in a campus climate that increasingly seeks to shut them down.
Plaintiffs Macy Roepke and Brooke Broll are both undergraduates in UCLA’s “Education and Social Transformation” program. Like many other conservative students at colleges around the country, they are continually reminded that viewpoints like theirs are vastly underrepresented on campus. Not only are many of their loudest classmates stridently left wing and anti-Israel, but the University’s leadership and faculty also echo those sentiments. Macy and Brooke boldly stand for conservative principles in an environment that grows increasingly hostile. Together, they are the voice of a minority that demands fairness, balance, and the right to be heard.
YAF has always stood as a pillar for those who believe in individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. Across America, YAF empowers students to bring speakers to their campuses to spark essential conversations—conversations that often challenge the prevailing narrative. Nowhere is this mission more critical than at UCLA, where the Administration’s double standards and arbitrary actions reveal a clear bias.
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Since 1977, MSLF has fought to protect private property rights, individual liberties, and economic freedom. MSLF is a nonprofit public interest legal foundation. We represent clients pro bono and receive no government funding. Make your 100% tax deductible contribution today and join the fight.
Silenced by UCLA
To foster a vital discussion often missing in university settings, YAF organized an event featuring conservative, pro-Israel speaker Robert Spencer in May of 2024. This initiative aimed to provide a platform for discourse on a topic that has long been contentious at UCLA: the legitimacy of the state of Israel, its right to defend itself, and the ongoing conflict with entities seeking its destruction.
Historically, UCLA has taken a clear stance in this political debate. For many years, the prevailing campus view has been strongly anti-Israel, portraying it as an illegitimate “settler, colonialist” project and an unlawful “occupier” of Palestinian lands. This perspective also accuses Israel of committing “genocide” in its self-defense efforts against neighboring aggressors. These sentiments are often intertwined with a broader anti-Western ideology, which similarly condemns the United States as an illegitimate nation founded on colonized land and built with slave labor.
The expression of these views, long entrenched as campus orthodoxy, intensified significantly following the October 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians by thousands of Hamas terrorists and their sympathizers. UCLA’s administration and many faculty members not only endorse these opinions but also actively support activist groups that seek to further entrench them on campus. This support often includes overlooking blatant violations of university policies and, in extreme cases, allowing criminal activities to go unchecked.
Knowing the contentious nature of campus politics, when they were preparing for the Robert Spencer lecture, YAF members worked diligently to follow the rules and regulations laid out by the University and collaborated with campus security, giving UCLA weeks to prepare. As the event date drew closer, UCLA started to create obstacles. They stalled on approvals, imposed arbitrary new requirements, and, at the last minute, made the outrageous decision to lock the venue doors, forcing the group to relocate to an unadvertised, off-campus location. Despite the students’ compliance, the University claimed that they could not provide adequate security.
It’s obvious that UCLA’s actions were not about security; it was about picking a side and silencing YAF’s voice, resulting in a direct violation of the First Amendment. The University effectively allowed a heckler’s veto, where the potential reaction of a hostile crowd was used as a pretext to shut down disfavored speech.
UCLA’s leadership, while loudly proclaiming their support for free speech, decided to systematically undermine the voices that did not align with their own views. This lawsuit is about holding the University accountable for these actions, ensuring that YAF and other conservative groups have equal opportunity to share their ideas, just as their progressive counterparts do.
What’s at Stake?
For the plaintiffs and others like them, this lawsuit vindicates the right to participate in meaningful public discourse without being blocked by those who disagree. Universities, intended to be bastions of open dialogue and rigorous debate, have increasingly become arenas where administrative biases and selective enforcement decide which voices are allowed to be heard. MSLF is taking a stand to ensure what happened at UCLA is not repeated elsewhere.
This lawsuit sends a resounding message: free speech is not a privilege for the favored few; it is a fundamental right for all Americans. We will not allow universities to trample on that right any longer. The ability to engage in public discourse without fear of suppression is non-negotiable. The outcome of this case will clarify that there will be no more picking sides, no more siding with mobs, and no more silencing conservative and pro-Israel viewpoints.
Case Timeline
- October 3, 2024: MSLF files lawsuit on behalf of YAF against UCLA.
- August 11, 2025: United States District Court Central District of California ruled to dismiss in part and grant in part the Motion to Dismiss.
- January 14, 2026: MSLF filed its appellate brief challenging the dismissal of YAF’s First Amendment claims, arguing that UCLA violated the Constitution by silencing conservative, pro-Israel speakers instead of addressing disruptive protestors. This is an unlawful “heckler’s veto” and impermissible viewpoint discrimination.
