A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from imposing a $1.2-billion fine on UCLA along with stipulations for deep campus changes in exchange for being eligible for federal grants. <\/p>\n
The decision is a major win for universities that have struggled to resist President Trump\u2019s attempt to discipline \u201cvery bad\u201d<\/a> universities that he claims have mistreated Jewish students, forcing them to pay exorbitant fines and agree to adhere to conservative standards.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The preliminary injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin of the Northern District of California, rendered moot \u2014 for now \u2014 nearly every aspect of a more than 7,000-word settlement offer the federal government sent<\/a> to the University of California in August after suspending $584 million in medical, science and energy research grants to the Los Angeles campus. <\/p>\n The government said it froze the funds<\/a> after finding UCLA broke the law by using race as a factor in admissions, recognizing transgender people\u2019s gender identities, and not taking antisemitism complaints seriously during pro-Palestinian protests<\/a> in 2024 \u2014 claims that UC has denied.<\/p>\n The settlement proposal outlined extensive changes to push UCLA \u2014 and by extension all of UC \u2014 ideologically rightward by calling for an end to diversity-related scholarships, restrictions on foreign student enrollment, a declaration that transgender people do not exist, an end to gender-affirming healthcare for minors, the imposition of free speech limits and more.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration and its executive agencies are engaged in a concerted campaign to purge \u2018woke,\u2019 \u2018left,\u2019 and \u2018socialist\u2019 viewpoints from our country\u2019s leading universities,\u201d Lin wrote<\/a> in her opinion. \u201cAgency 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. Universities are then presented with agreements to restore federal funding under which they must change what they teach, restrict student anonymity in protests, and endorse the administration\u2019s view of gender, among other things. Defendants submit nothing to refute this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is undisputed,\u201d Lin added, \u201cthat this precise playbook is now being executed at the University of California.\u201d<\/p>\n Universities including Columbia<\/a>, Brown and Cornell agreed to pay<\/a> the government hundreds of millions to atone for alleged violations similar to the ones facing UCLA. The University of Pennsylvania and University of Virginia<\/a> also reached agreements with the Trump administration that were focused, respectively, on ending recognition of transgender people and halting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. <\/p>\n Friday\u2019s decision, for the time being, spares the UC system from proceeding with negotiations that it reluctantly entered with the federal government to avoid further grant cuts and restrictions across the system, which receives $17.5 billion in federal funding each year. UC President James B. Milliken has said that the $1.2-billion fine would \u201ccompletely devastate\u201d UC and that the system, under fire from the Trump administration, faces \u201cone of the gravest threats in UC\u2019s 157-year history.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n This is not the first time a judge rebuked the Trump administration for its higher education campaign. Massachusetts-based U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in September ordered the government to reverse billions in cuts to Harvard. But that case did not wade directly into settlement negotiations.<\/p>\n Those talks with UC have proceeded slowly. In a court hearing last week, a Department of Justice lawyer said \u201cthere\u2019s no evidence that any type of deal with the United States is going to be happening in the immediate future.\u201d The lawyer argued that the settlement offer was only an idea that had not received UC approval. <\/p>\n Because of that, he said, a lawsuit was inappropriate. Lin disagreed.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaintiffs\u2019 harm is already very real. With every day that passes, UCLA continues to be denied the chance to win new grants, ratcheting up defendants\u2019 pressure campaign,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAnd numerous UC faculty and staff have submitted declarations describing how defendants\u2019 actions have already chilled speech throughout the UC system.\u201d<\/p>\n The case was brought by more a dozen faculty and staff unions and associations from across UC\u2019s 10 campuses, who said the federal government was violating their 1st Amendment rights and constitutional right to due process. UC, which has avoided directly challenging the government in court, was not party to the suit.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not only a historic lawsuit \u2014 brought by every labor union and faculty union in the UC \u2014 but also an incredible win,\u201d said Veena Dubal, a UC Irvine law professor and general counsel for one of the plaintiffs, the American Assn. of University Professors, which has members across UC campuses. <\/p>\n Dubal called the decision \u201ca turning point in the fight to save free speech and research in the finest public school system in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about Friday\u2019s outcome, a spokesperson said UC \u201cremains focused on our vital work to drive innovation, advance medical breakthroughs and strengthen the nation\u2019s long-term competitiveness. UC remains committed to protecting the mission, governance, and academic freedom of the university.\u201d<\/p>\n Zo\u00e9 Hamstead<\/a>, chair of external relations and legal affairs for the Council of UC Faculty Assns., said she was \u201cthrilled that the court has affirmed our First Amendment rights.\u201d <\/p>\n The organization is an umbrella group of faculty associations across UC campuses that sued.<\/p>\n Hamstead, an associate professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley, said she was \u201cdeeply proud to be part of a coalition that represents the teachers, researchers, and workers of the University of California who are challenging rising authoritarianism in federal court.\u201d<\/p>\n