The Trump administration cannot immediately cut off federal funding University of California Or issue fines against the school system over allegations that it allows anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled late Friday in a strongly worded decision.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction requested by labor unions and other groups representing UCLA faculty, students and staff. She said they provided “compelling evidence” that the Trump administration “is engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘left-wing’ and ‘socialist’ views from our nation’s leading universities.”
“Agency officials, as well as the president and vice president, have repeatedly declared a playbook for launching civil rights investigations of prominent universities to justify cutting off federal funding, with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tone,” she said.
“It is indisputable that this precise evidence is now being implemented at UCLA,” she added.
Messages sent to the White House and the US Department of Justice after hours on Friday were not immediately responded to.
President Donald Trump has criticized elite colleges as overpowered by liberalism and anti-Semitism.
His administration launched investigations into dozens of universities, claiming they had failed to end the use of racial preferences in violation of civil rights law. The Republican administration says diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminate against white and Asian American students.
The Trump administration launched a series of civil rights investigations into UCLA, according to Lane’s ruling.
During the summer. Was fined University of California, Los Angeles $1.2 billion and freeze research funding after the school was accused of allowing anti-Semitism on campus. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations.
And it might as well Freeze or stop federal funding regarding similar claims against private colleges, including Columbia University.
The University of California is in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit against Lin, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
University of California President James B. Milliken said the size of the UCLA fine would devastate the UC system, whose campuses are viewed as some of the best public colleges in the country.
The administration required UC to comply with its views on gender identity and create a process to ensure foreign students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in anti-American, anti-Western or anti-Semitic “disturbances or harassment,” among other requirements outlined in a settlement proposal announced in October.
The administration had previously concluded deals with Brown University for $50 million and Columbia University for $221 million.
Lin cited statements by UCLA faculty and staff that the administration’s moves were causing them to stop teaching or researching topics that they “feared were ‘abandoned’ or ‘woke’.”
“The undisputed record shows that the defendants engaged in coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First Amendment and the Tenth Amendment.” I wrote.
Lane’s order prohibits the administration from canceling funding to UC based on alleged discrimination without following the process set forth in federal law, including providing notice to affected faculty and conducting a hearing. It also rescinded a funding freeze against UCLA, which was announced over the summer.