A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding to the University of California, Los Angeles, saying the move was unlawful.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction requiring the government to restore $500 million in grants. Lin found that federal officials likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which demands clear reasoning and proper procedures when ending funding. Instead, UCLA was sent broad form letters notifying it that multiple grants from different agencies had been suspended without specific explanations.
The dispute traces back to August, when UCLA revealed the administration had frozen $584 million in grants, citing allegations tied to civil rights, antisemitism and affirmative action. That same month, Lin issued an earlier ruling restoring $81 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, finding the cuts violated an earlier injunction protecting the University of California system’s funding.
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The administration has wielded federal dollars to pressure universities it accuses of fostering antisemitism and liberal bias, while also probing diversity and inclusion initiatives it claims disadvantage white and Asian American students.
Other schools have faced similar battles. Columbia and Brown negotiated agreements to safeguard their funding, while Harvard sued. In that case, a federal judge concluded the funding freeze was illegal retaliation after Harvard resisted the administration’s demands.
At UCLA, federal officials had sought a $1 billion settlement to end their investigation, an amount Governor Gavin Newsom condemned as an “extortion attempt.” University leaders warned such a payout would cripple the institution.
The ruling now protects hundreds of medical research projects funded through the National Institutes of Health, including studies on Parkinson’s disease, cancer recovery and nerve cell regeneration, which UCLA argued are vital to public health.
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