A judge prevents Trump from cutting the funding of the University of California in Los Angeles
A judge rejected the cutting of funds to the University of California over accusations that it allows antisemitism and other forms of discrimination
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California system, alleging antisemitism or other forms of discrimination.
District Judge Rita Lin of San Francisco issued a A preliminary court order was issued Friday night, ruling that the government could not demand payments from the California school system over the administration's allegations that it violates civil rights by allowing antisemitism and practicing affirmative action. Lin ruled that Donald Trump cannot demand that UCLA pay $1.2 billion in damages that would have severely limited the campus's academic freedoms and its efforts to enroll an economically and culturally diverse student body, nor risk further funding freezes for the university. The judge described Trump's actions against the university as "coercive and repressive." Her ruling does not apply only to UCLA. It significantly limits the Trump administration's ability to attack the rest of the University of California system with respect to current and future research grants. In his ruling, Lin stated that the plaintiffs, including University of California faculty, researchers, and students, presented compelling evidence illustrating the Trump administration's concerted campaign to eradicate progressive, left-leaning, and socialist ideologies from the nation's leading universities. The Trump administration suspended $584 million in federal research funding allocated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy, and other agencies, according to university chancellor Julio Frenk.
Almost all of the funds that Trump froze in July were reinstated after a series of lawsuits led Lin to temporarily reverse Trump's cuts in August and September.
The White House could appeal the injunction, as it has done in similar ways. cases. Meanwhile, the merits of the case will continue to play out in the courts.