UCLA Under Senate Investigation After Threatening Federalist Society Students
A dean’s threat to punish Federalist Society students if they released the names of disruptive protesters “violated the First Amendment.”
The fallout from last month’s disruption of a UCLA Law Federalist Society event took a significant new turn on Friday, when a U.S. Senator announced a formal investigation, prompted not just by the disruption itself, but by what UCLA’s own administrators did—and failed to do—next.
Senator Eric Schmitt, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution wrote to UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and UCLA Law Dean Michael Waterstone that he was investigating “serious First Amendment and civil rights violations” at the University of California, Los Angeles, including most recently at the School of Law.”
On April 21st, the Federalist Society chapter at UCLA Law School hosted an event featuring Homeland Security general counsel James Percival. What should have been civil discourse about Trump’s immigration policies descended into juvenile name-calling and nastiness as soon as the speakers were introduced.
Protesters outside the event shouted profanities. Those inside heckled Percival as he spoke, set off their cell phones to ring in unison, booed and insulted him, called him a “Nazi,” and held up vulgar posters—“F— you, loser,” written on one, “How’s Trump’s C**ck Taste?” on another. Midway through, about 50 of them stomped out of the room.
No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist U.S.A.”
NEW VIDEO shows profanity-laced chants filling the air outside UCLA while protesters inside heckle a DHS attorney speaking to law students.
The agitators interrupted the conservative campus event by calling the guest speaker a “Nazi” and… pic.twitter.com/noTAqwm2hS
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 22, 2026
The protesters “weren’t there to hear, listen, or question, they were there to disrupt in a coordinated manner,” the event’s moderator, Pepperdine Law Professor Greg McNeal, later posted on X.
As usual, university leadership turned a blind eye to these assaults on free speech coming from the left. Dean Waterstone released a mealy-mouthed statement shortly after the event, noting that some demonstrators were “issued warnings” and “were either escorted out or left of their own accord.” While the school recognized “some disruption,” “the moderated conversation continued throughout, and the event proceeded to its conclusion.”
In other words, the protesters got off scot-free.
Then, to make matters much worse, Assistant Dean Bayrex Martí sent emails to the Federalist Society students, threatening them with punishment if they revealed the names of the protesters who disrupted the event, the very students UCLA had declined to discipline.
Releasing those names “would undoubtedly qualify as protected speech,” Senator Schmitt wrote on Friday.
And while Dean Martí reportedly walked back his comments in a subsequent email, Dean Waterstone has, as of now, remained silent, leaving the conservative students in a state of uncertainty over whether they would be punished for naming the protesters.
As a public university, UCLA is bound by the First Amendment. UCLA’s failure to prevent the anti-ICE students from disrupting the event, standing alone, violated the First Amendment rights of the Federalist Society students who hosted the event, the letter says. But Dean Martí’s email, with its threat of retaliation, escalated the assault on those rights. The move was “an attempt to impose a prior restraint on them through a viewpoint-discriminatory threat of retaliation if they engaged in constitutionally protected speech,” Senator Schmitt wrote.
The Senate letter seeks to force the school out of its silence. It demands that UCLA explain the nature of the “review” and “necessary steps” Dean Waterstone said the school would undertake to protect its students, and state whether it will continue to assert the authority to punish students for releasing the names of the event protesters. And pointedly, it asks whether UCLA Law will investigate Assistant Dean Martí or other administrators for violating the First Amendment.
Last month’s fiasco at the Federalist Society event is by now part of an all-too-familiar pattern at UCLA, the target of multiple lawsuits and federal actions for violating students’ civil and constitutional rights. As the letter puts it: “Each time, a politically disfavored group of students attempts to engage in regular behavior, such as walking on campus or hosting a guest speaker. Each time, a mob of leftist UCLA student-activists violates UCLA’s student-conduct rules—and federal civil rights statutes—by preventing those other students from engaging in that protected activity. And each time, UCLA tries to disclaim responsibility by shifting blame to the leftist student-activist mob.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has already put UCLA on the DOJ’s radar for allowing the disruptors’ “hecklers’ veto” to squelch the Federalist Society event.
Oh @UCLA…
Adding
To
The
List ….And it’s the wrong list https://t.co/q8PAaFoM6l
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) April 22, 2026
And now, Senator Schmitt has given the school until May 22nd to show why it should not remain there.
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Comments
this should have bigger implications and shuold not be settled as information regarding criminals is squashed by leftists and their bs “we cant publish the names” of criminals /under 18 b/c it would hurt their rehab
that can be changed by the will of the people or a trump run doj
the ucla communistnazi regime is being called out and should not be allowed to settle on this and with no doubt the leaders of the censoring thugs must be imprisoned
by any means necessary
UCLA Law School should have it’s accreditation reviewed.
They clearly cannot effectively teach law.
Accreditation reviewed by who, exactly. The American Bar Association? The ABA is about as woke and leftist as you can get and probably wouldn’t do a thing to the UCLA Law School.
Oh a List.
(rolls eyes)
Puhleeze…. put Marti in jail for 10-16 years otherwise other clowns like him will feel free to violate the first amendment as they please.
Will this happen? Nah. Just more Kabuki theater by the political class of stooges.
Oh no! They’re on the DOJ’s radar and they might stay there? UCLA must be shaking in their boots!
We’re long past the point of “ we will be very, very angry with you… and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are. ” being an adequate response.
Cut UCLA’s federal funding. Eliminate student loan eligibility for its students.
Put them on double secret probation! That will show them!
they let some guy named ” bayrex” threaten them ?–lord
Ponder this — the embittered, vindictive, uncivil, entitled, infantile and stupid narcissists who are enrolled at these law schools and who are fully indoctrinated in communist/Islamofascist ideology are going to be employed as partners at law firms, federal judges, corporate counsel, and in other positions of influence and power.
Making a list
Checking it twice
Gonna find out who’s
Naughty or Nice
Positive identification of valid threat/targets seems like a reasonable first step towards an end state of ruthlessly applying draconian consequences. The Trump Admin has just under 3 years to get it done.
Can you imagine sending a photo of a young lady holding a sign that says F**K YOU LOSER to her parents? Unless the parents are committed Marxists themselves, it might be a wake up call for that young lady.
I’m sure there were plenty of photographs taken of those petulant children who will soon be looking for a lawyer’s job. There is nothing better than to publicize their love of vulgarity and violation of free speech rights.
The various AI applications are pretty good at putting a name to a face. It’s time to hold these mopes accountable for their vile actions.
This reveals a continuing pattern of universities condoning progressive student violent disruptions and attacks on conservatives rights of free speech. This is the result of school administration taken over by woke activists, faculty, administrators and students.
Faculty senates, student councils and student activities administration have fallen into the hands of a small number of committed activists who make sure that progressives are encouraged and conservatives are silenced. This rot has been going on for decades and it has damaged every aspect of the university.
Activist faculty claim they are teaching students how to think (thinking critically). Conservatives respond that their colleagues are teaching what to think (indoctrinating them). My experience as a professor tells me that what they have done is taught the students NOT TO THINK. This is something that is not limited to social science or humanities. It is very evident in the sciences where students are taught not to question dogmas about climate change, Covid policy or even biology (gender is a matter of choice while sexual orientation is genetically determined).
The suppression of dissent is necessitated by the stupidity of the ideology the woke are peddling.
The University of California at Tinsel Town. The only UCLA I wish to see is The Upper Corner of Lower Alabama. These law students are just trying out of bit parts in the entertainment industry. Spoiler alert… L.A. Law was cancelled a long time ago.