Trump administration sued over actions against University of California

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Labor unions, faculties and students in the University of California education system sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday over the freezing of federal funds and other actions that they say aim to stifle academic freedom.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks to forbid the government from using financial threats against the system that it said were harmful and unlawful. It also aims to restore funding already suspended.

“(The administration) has attempted to implement a playbook to threaten colleges and universities,” the coalition that filed the lawsuit said. It added that those threats were based on disdain for the institutions’ curriculum, expressive activity on campuses, and initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion.

The University of California said it was not a party of the suit but was engaged in many legal and advocacy efforts to maintain and restore its funding.

A White House spokeswoman dismissed the suit as a legal effort from “victimhood-seeking professors”, saying the Trump administration opposed “unreasonable overhead fees” while advocating for responsible management of federal funds.

The government has launched probes into universities’ handling of alleged antisemitism during student protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, and has frozen funds over that and other issues, including climate initiatives and DEI programs.

Civil rights advocates say the Trump administration is attempting to make universities more aligned with his political agenda, while critics also see such attempts as threatening free speech and academic freedom.

The University of California operates one of the largest higher-education systems in the country, with 10 main campuses and nearly 300,000 students, as well as 265,000 faculty and other staff.

The Trump administration had proposed to settle its probe into the University of California, Los Angeles – part of the university system – through a $1 billion payment from the institution. Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom called that an extortion attempt.

UCLA said in August the government froze $584 million in funding before a judge ordered the Trump administration to restore some of that money. The University of California, Berkeley, another campus in the system, said on Friday it provided information on 160 faculty members and students to the government as part of an investigation.

University of California President James Milliken said on Monday the institution was facing one of the gravest threats in its history due to the federal government’s actions, noting that it receives more than $17 billion each year in federal support.

The Trump administration has faced some legal roadblocks in its funding freeze attempts. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that it had unlawfully terminated more than $2 billion in grants for Harvard University.

The government alleges universities allowed antisemitism during campus protests. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, have said the government is wrongly equating their criticism of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.

Human rights advocates have noted a rise in antisemitism, anti-Arab bias and Islamophobia due to conflict in the Middle East, although the Trump administration has not announced probes into Islamophobia.

The administration has settled its investigations with Columbia and Brown universities.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Christopher Cushing)