Judge indefinitely bars Trump from fining University of California over alleged discrimination

The U.S. federal judge blocked the Trump administration from slashing the University of California’s budget over claims of antisemitism and other discrimination.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, who sits in San Francisco, issued a preliminary injunction that forces the administration to give notice to the university’s faculty and hold a hearing before any cut to funding can take place. The ruling also bars the government from tying federal money to any policy that would infringe on the First Amendment.

The decision follows a summer demand from the administration for UCLA to pay $1.2 billion to lift a freeze on research funding. The university also had to agree to a policy that would stop foreign students who might “disrupt or harass” them from enrolling. This was the first time the Trump team hit a public university over civil‑rights accusations.

UCLA was not the only school on the list. Columbia University and other private colleges have faced similar freezes or pauses on federal money after the administration accused them of violating civil‑rights laws.

Judge Lin emphasized that her order will stay in place indefinitely and that the federal government must follow legal safeguards before a university’s funding is cut. She wrote that the administration has been “engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints” from the nation’s top universities and that the UC system is now suffering “coercive and retaliatory conduct” that violates the First Amendment and the Tenth Amendment.

The University of California’s president, James B. Milliken, warned that the scale of the proposed fine could cripple the entire system, which includes campuses widely regarded as some of the nation’s best public colleges. UC says it is still in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit that led to Judge Lin’s ruling.

The judge’s order also stops the government from conditioning funding on measures that would infringe on faculty rights. She cited allegations that some UC staff are leaving classrooms because they fear their “left” or “woke” research will be targeted.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized elite schools as dominated by liberalism and antisemitism. His administration has launched investigations into dozens of universities, claiming they fail to eliminate racial preferences and that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs discriminate against white and Asian American students.

With this injunction, the Trump administration must now follow proper procedure before it can cut money from the University of California, safeguarding the school’s academic freedom and the rights of its students, teachers and researchers.

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