Judge bars Trump administration from cutting funding to University of California | California

The Trump administration cannot fine the University of California or summarily cut federal funding for the school system on the grounds that it enables anti-Semitism or other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled Friday night in an unequivocal decision.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the administration from defunding the university based on discrimination allegations without notifying affected faculty and holding a hearing, among other requirements.

Over the summer, the administration asked the University of California, Los Angeles, to pay $1.2 billion to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing anti-Semitism on campus. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations.

He also froze or suspended federal funding following similar claims against private colleges, including Columbia University.

In his ruling, Lin said unions and other groups representing University of California faculty, students and employees had provided “overwhelming evidence” that the Trump administration was “engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left-wing,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints from our nation’s leading universities.”

“Agency officials, along with the President and Vice President, have repeatedly and publicly announced a strategy of launching civil rights investigations at leading universities to justify cutting federal funding, with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tone,” Lin wrote.

She added: “There is no doubt that this exact textbook is currently being run at the University of California. »

At UC, which is facing a series of civil rights investigations, it found that the administration engaged in “coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First and 10th Amendments.”

Messages sent to the White House and the U.S. Justice Department after hours Friday were not immediately returned. Lin’s order will remain in effect indefinitely.

University of California President James B Milliken said the scale of UCLA’s fine would have a devastating effect on the UC system, whose campuses are considered among the best public colleges in the country.

UC is in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit filed against Lin, who was nominated to the bench by Joe Biden, a Democrat. In a statement, the university system said it “remains committed to protecting the mission, governance and academic freedom of the university.”

The administration has asked UCLA to comply with its views on gender identity and establish a process to ensure that international students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in anti-American, anti-Western or anti-Semitic “disruption or harassment,” among other requirements outlined in a proposed rule made public in October.

The administration has already reached agreements with Brown University for $50 million and with Columbia University for $221 million.

Lin cited statements from UC faculty and staff that the administration’s actions caused them to stop teaching or researching topics they “feared were too ‘left’ or ‘woke’.”

His injunction also prevents the administration from “conditioning the granting or continuation of federal funding on UC’s agreement to any action that would violate the plaintiff member rights under the First Amendment.”

She cited as examples of such measures efforts to force UC schools to screen international students based on “anti-Western” or “anti-American” views, restrict research and teaching, or adopt specific definitions of “male” and “female.”

Donald Trump has denounced elite universities as being overrun by liberalism and anti-Semitism.

His administration launched investigations into dozens of universities, saying they had failed to end the use of racial preferences, in violation of civil rights laws. The Republican administration says diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminate against white and Asian American students.