UCLA sued over records on anti-Israel activist

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(The Center Square) - University of California, Los Angeles is being sued over what plaintiffs call a "radical," anti-Israel activist.

The lawsuit was brought by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, which claims UCLA is hiding records from the public about what “radicals” have been teaching on campus during UCLA’s taxpayer-funded Activist-in-Residence program.

Goldwater said these “activists” have a right to their radical ideas, including the self-proclaimed revolutionary journalist Lisa Gray-Garcia, who called homelessness a “white man’s scam” and accused Israel of genocide. Still, Goldwater attorneys said the university is not entitled to hide records about what radicals are teaching or how much they’re being paid.

“Public universities don't get to operate in secret,” Goldwater attorney Stacy Skankey told The Center Square. “They're taxpayer-funded, and so if the taxpayers are funding any particular program, the public has a right to see it.”

According to Skankey, Goldwater has been trying to get information for several months, but UCLA has not complied with the California Public Records Act and its requirements for a timely response.

“So we have sued to get them to comply with the law to ensure that we receive the documents that they're withholding,” said Skankey. “In California, the response is due almost immediately, and they have worked with us as far as saying that a production would be forthcoming. But they've kept moving the ball on that, and they haven't given us a clear reason as to why that's happening, why they're withholding.”

Skankey noted the law does not make exceptions for anything that might prove inconvenient or embarrassing to UCLA.

“They cannot operate behind closed doors,” said Skankey. “They are public and taxpayer-funded, and so, any taxpayer has a right to know what's going on at that university and what they're funding.”

The California Public Records Act was passed by the state Legislature in 1968.  According to CA.gov, the state of California states that CPRA “requires that government records be disclosed to the public, upon request.”

The lawsuit is filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.