A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate part of the federal grant funding it recently suspended for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) over civil rights violations and antisemitism concerns.
Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled Tuesday that the administration violated a June preliminary injunction directing the National Science Foundation (NSF) to restore dozens of terminated grants to the University of California system. Lin wrote that the NSF continued to halt funding to UCLA despite the injunction, reclassifying “terminations” as “suspensions” in what she described as an unreasonable interpretation of her order.
“NSF’s actions violate the Preliminary Injunction,” Lin stated in her decision.
According to UCLA, the federal government has frozen $584 million in funding. The university said it is reviewing a settlement proposal from the administration that would require UCLA to pay $1 billion, warning the payment would “devastate” the institution.
The funding freeze follows a series of high-profile controversies. UCLA agreed last month to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit alleging antisemitism and faces another suit over a 2024 mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters. Large demonstrations on campus last year intensified scrutiny from federal authorities.
The Trump administration has reached other settlements with universities accused of similar violations, including Columbia University, which agreed to pay over $220 million, and Brown University, which will pay $50 million over ten years. Negotiations with Harvard are ongoing.
The case, Thakur v. Trump, is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
