The plaintiffs said they welcomed the judge’s decision and denounced the administration’s actions.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Nov. 14 that blocked the Trump administration from cutting federal funding to the University of California over its handling of anti-semitism on campus.
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed on Sept. 16 by associations and labor unions representing employees across the university’s 10 campuses, who alleged the administration violated their First Amendment rights by cutting off funding to the university due to alleged discriminatory practices.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin of the Northern District of California stated that the plaintiffs have presented “overwhelming evidence” that showed the administration engaged in “a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints” from the nation’s leading universities.
“Agency officials, as well as the President and Vice President, have repeatedly and publicly announced a playbook of initiating civil rights investigations of preeminent universities to justify cutting off federal funding, with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tune,” Lin stated in her ruling.
“It is undisputed that this precise playbook is now being executed at the University of California,” the judge added.
According to court documents, the administration withheld $584 million in research funds from the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) in July—including funds from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Energy Department—citing its alleged failures to tackle anti-semitism and discriminatory admissions practices. It also imposed a $1.2 billion fine on UCLA.
The administration has demanded that UCLA comply with its gender policy and establish a process to make sure foreign students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in anti-American, anti-Western, or anti-semitic activities, among other requirements outlined in a settlement proposal made public in October.
“Plaintiffs have shown that Defendants are coercing the UC [University of California] as a whole, through the Task Force Policy and Funding Cancellation, in order to stamp out their members’ disfavored speech,” Lin said.
“Therefore, to afford Plaintiffs complete relief, the entirety of the coercive practice must be enjoined, not just the suspensions that impact Plaintiffs’ members.”
