UC Staff, Professors, Students Sue Trump Administration Over Funding Freeze

Photo: UCLA

India-West News Desk

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A coalition of California education unions and faculty associations is suing the Trump administration, accusing it of illegally using civil rights laws to punish the University of California and coerce compliance with political demands. The lawsuit, filed September 16 in federal court, is led by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and represented by Democracy Forward. Nineteen groups are part of the coalition, including the American Federation of Teachers and faculty associations from all 10 UC campuses.

The Trump administration has levied a $1.2 billion fine against UCLA and frozen its research funding, marking the first time a major public university had been subjected to a blanket funding halt. On September 15, UC President James Milliken confirmed all 10 campuses are under federal investigation.

The administration has applied similar pressure to private institutions such as Harvard, Brown, and Columbia, also accusing them of civil rights violations.

The complaint alleges that the administration has tied the restoration of federal research funding to sweeping requirements it calls unconstitutional. Among them are government access to faculty, staff and student data, cooperation with immigration enforcement, elimination of gender-inclusive restrooms, a formal rejection of transgender identity, and more than $1 billion in penalties. UCLA has been the primary target, but system leaders fear other campuses may soon face funding freezes.

“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding,” the lawsuit states.

AAUP president Todd Wolfson said the coalition would resist efforts to erode academic freedom. “We will not stand by as the Trump administration destroys one of the largest public university systems in the country and bludgeons academic freedom at the University of California,” he said. Anna Markowitz, president of the UCLA Faculty Association, added that UC is “standing up against federal extortion, job loss, bans on speech and expression.”