In another blow to US President Donald Trump’s attempts at controlling the goings-on at top universities in the US, a federal judge on Friday barred the president’s administration from immediately cutting funding to the University of California or issuing fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism and other forms of discrimination.
US District Judge, Rita Lin, in San Francisco, granted a preliminary injunction sought by labor unions and other groups representing UC faculty, students and employees, who had argued in a lawsuit that the administration is using funding cuts and the threat of cuts to silence opposing viewpoints at UC in violation of the Constitution and federal law.
The White House and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to the ruling.
Trump has publically waged a war against elite colleges, accusing them of being overrun by liberalism and antisemitism. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by his administration over allegations of civil rights violations.
Over the summer, it fined the University of California, Los Angeles, $1.2 billion and froze research funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus.
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The president’s administration also demanded UCLA comply with its views on gender identity and establish a process to make sure foreign students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in “anti-American, anti-Western or antisemitic disruptions or harassment”, among other requirements outlined in a settlement proposal made public in October.
University of California President, James B. Milliken, has said the size of the UCLA fine would devastate the UC system, whose campuses are viewed as some of the top public colleges in the nation.
The US administration also launched investigations of dozens of universities, claiming they have failed to end the use of racial preferences in violation of civil rights law, freezing or pausing federal funding to them.
The Republican administration says diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminate against white and Asian American students.
Private colleges that bore the brunt of Trump administration’s ire include the Columbia University, Brown and Harvard.
UC is now said to be in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit. The administration has previously struck deals with Brown University for $50 million and Columbia University for $221 million.
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