Federal judge blocks Trump administration from cutting funding to University of California

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from cutting funding to the University of California system over allegations of discrimination and antisemitism.

U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California Rita Lin, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction on Friday against the administration's threats to funding, citing the government's repeated pledge to launch civil rights investigations to warrant cuts to those funds “with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tune,” The Hill reported.

Lin ruled that the government’s funding cuts and investigations opened by the Departments of Education and Justice were “coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First Amendment and 10th Amendment,” based on “overwhelming evidence” from UC faculty and labor unions.

Leo Terrell, DOJ senior counsel and head of the antisemitism task force, promised to take “every single federal dollar” from the UC system, which receives more than $17 billion annually in federal funding.

“With every day that passes, [the University of California Los Angeles] continues to be denied the chance to win new grants, ratchetting up Defendants’ pressure campaign,” Lin wrote. “And numerous UC faculty and staff have submitted declarations describing how Defendants’ actions have already chilled speech throughout the UC system.”

She added that professors and faculty said they “stopped teaching or researching topics they are afraid are too ‘left’ or ‘woke,’ in order to avoid triggering further funding cancellations by” the federal government and out of fear of reprisals.

To comply with the government’s investigations, UC faculty have “avoided publicly speaking or promoting student work on disfavored topics,” Lin later wrote. “They have refrained from participating in protests. Others have detailed how the UC withdrew support for their research on disfavored topics, resulting in them being unable to pursue that work.”

The Trump administration in September sought a $1 billion settlement with UCLA after it paused over $550 million in research funds. The settlement was to be paid by the university in installments, along with a $172 million fund for those impacted by civil rights violations.