A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding federal funding and threatening fines against the University of California, ruling that the administration's actions were part of a campaign to force universities to adopt conservative ideals.
US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction on Friday, saying the government could not demand payments from the California school system over claims of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. The judge cited 'overwhelming evidence' of a 'concerted campaign to purge woke, left and socialist viewpoints from our country's leading universities'.
Lin said the administration had a 'playbook of initiating civil rights investigations' to cut funding, 'bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tune'. The ruling comes after the Trump administration froze $584m in federal funding for UCLA in July, accusing it of mishandling pro-Palestinian protests and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.
In October, the administration offered nine prominent universities a deal to restore funding in exchange for policies banning race or sex considerations in admissions and removing departments that 'punish, belittle and spark violence against conservative ideas'. While the University of California system was not offered the deal, the University of Southern California was. California Governor Gavin Newsom warned that any university signing the settlement would lose state funding.
Progressive legal group Democracy Forward called the administration's tactics 'strong-arm' and 'a betrayal of the constitution and a dangerous step toward autocracy'.
