UC Davis dissolves law student group after it implemented boycott of Israel
UC Davis dissolved the Law Students Association after the group passed a resolution that would institute an association-wide academic and fiscal boycott of Israel for its “ongoing genocide and occupation in Palestine.”
UC Davis School of Law Dean Jessica Berg announced Monday that UC Davis suspended operations of LSA and directed law school administrators to take control of the association’s funds, which amounts to $40,000, according to university spokesperson Bill Kisliuk.
Kisliuk said that LSA “knowingly violated” University of California policy that requires student government organizations to support activities on a “viewpoint-neutral” basis.
“Members of the campus community may peacefully exercise their constitutional right of free expression, yet the university cannot allow disregard or violation of state or federal law and university policy,” he said.
“UC Davis and King Hall Administration have unrecognized the Law Students Association as a student government due to its democratic vote for a student supported BDS constitutional amendment,” the UC Davis chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild wrote in an Instagram post. “We are appalled to see UC Davis and King Hall administration follow in the footstep of other universities in using their discretion to disempower students’ collective action.”
LSA is a student government organization that controls the disbursement of law activity fees. The amendment, passed Feb. 28, prohibits approval of funding for speakers who are associated with Israel’s government or a number of Israeli universities and for events featuring speakers from three law firms that have reportedly revoked job offers to law students who have advocated for Palestinian causes.
It would also prevent funds from going to any companies listed by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a Palestinian-led movement which seeks to cut ties with Israel and companies that support it. The list includes corporations across many sectors, including Burger King, McDonald’s, Intel and Disney+.
The amendment was drafted by UC Davis National Lawyer’s Guild members. The guild said that the resolution was supported by the student body with 18 student organizations signing a petition of support.
“In the face of rising repression both within our institution and nationally, our students show that King Hall remains a law school committed to anti-racism, anti-oppression and anti-apartheid,” the association wrote in an Instagram post last month.
The vote followed a resolution passed last year by the Associated Students of UC Davis, which represents the undergraduate population of the school. Senate Bill 52 mandated ASUCD to boycott Israel and other organizations “complicit in the human rights violations against Palestinians amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
UC Davis has not said whether or not it will seize control of ASUCD’s funds, a much more significant pot of money amounting to $22 million annually.
Tension over the Israel boycott
In the weeks since LSA voted to institute the boycott, members faced external and internal pressure to reverse the legislation. In an email to the law student body, the LSA board said that it was made aware that the resolution violated UC policy, but decided to move forward with implementation “to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
The board said it expected the chancellor to take control of LSA funding allocation and recommended members to submit funding requests before that happened.
In response to the threat of dissolution, several other student groups from law schools across the country, including Harvard University and UCLA, issued promises of support for LSA should UC Davis take retaliatory action against the student organization.
“This resolution is a clear stand against genocide and reflects the student body’s moral commitment to ensuring their student fees are not complicit in supporting ongoing human rights violations,” the UCLA NLG wrote in an Instagram post. “Any move by the student government to repeal it—especially under vague, verbal threats from administrators—undermines that commitment and sets a dangerous precedent for student democracy and activism.”
Other than an Instagram post, UC Davis NLG has not issued an official response to the dissolution. NLG leaders did not respond to an immediate request for an interview.
Israel War Room, a pro-Israel advocacy group, circulated a petition last week demanding that the UC Davis School of Law dissolve the LSA to prevent what it called the “antisemitic policy” from being implemented.
The dissolution of the LSA following its BDS amendment is just one of many free speech skirmishes being waged in the UC Davis campus surrounding Israel and Gaza.
Earlier this month, the Muslim Faculty and Staff Association at UC Davis canceled the appearance of Palestinian academic Ahlam Muhtaseb at a community Iftar. The staff association said it was to protect faculty and students given the current political climate, but Muhtaseb said that it was censorship.
UC Davis is one of 60 universities nationwide being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for alleged Title VI violations related to antisemitic harassment and discrimination on campus. The school already settled a Biden-era civil rights investigation late last year, agreeing to train employees who investigated discrimination complaints for impartiality and to turn over a file of its responses to discrimination complaints in the 2024-25 school year.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 3:17 PM.
CORRECTION: UC Davis suspended the Law Students Association on March 24. An earlier version of the story incorrectly attributed the action to the law school.
