In conclusion
Due to suspected DEI violations, the government canceled the awards. Attorneys from the University of California contended that the suspensions were arbitrary and unreasonable.
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In a significant blow to attempts to pressure UCLA into a $1 billion settlement, a federal court ordered the Trump administration to reinstate some of the 800 federal science research contracts that it stopped at the university last month.
Judge Rita F. Lin of the California district court decided on Tuesday that the suspensions were in violation of her preliminary injunction from June, which prohibited the National Science Foundation from canceling other grants at the UC system and ordered the agency to restore 114 grants that it had terminated at the University of California.
According to Lin, NSF’s actions are against the Preliminary Injunction.
After attorneys for University of California academics claimed the terminations of the science foundation grants were arbitrary, capricious, and against federal law, she issued her ruling in June. Following a number of Trump executive orders in January, those awards and others were discontinued due to alleged violations of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Lin’s decision to reinstate the suspended awards followed a court filing by the UC researchers’ attorneys following the suspension of 500 National Institutes of Health grants and 300 National Science Foundation grants at UCLA. $584 million was frozen by the suspensions. Although some of the attorneys work for the UC, they are not representing the UC system. Whether Lin’s most recent directive would restore all 300 suspended National Science Foundation grants is still unclear. All 300 should be restored, according to Claudia Polsky, the researchers’ attorney.
Lin instructed the UC researchers’ attorneys and the Trump administration to submit an update on the restorations on August 19.
Because they weren’t addressed in her original June ruling, Lin’s most recent order doesn’t reinstate UCLA’s National Institutes of Science funds that were stopped.Campuses depend on the financing to train graduate students, create new medications, conduct scientific research, and achieve scientific breakthroughs that have made the United States perhaps the world’s leader in scientific discovery.
Federal attorneys argued that the suspension of the UCLA funds did not contravene Lin’s June order, which prohibited terminations but said nothing about suspensions. Attorneys for the University of California researchers stated that since both suspensions and terminations result in the loss of funds, there is no distinction between the two. Additionally, they contended that, similar to the June case, the suspensions of UCLA funds did not adhere to federal protocol, which mandates that an agency provide justification for each grant’s termination of financing.Only in name do NSF’s indefinite suspensions differ from terminations. In Tuesday’s order, Lin wrote. She went on to say that, in violation of the Preliminary Injunction, the letters alerting UCLA to the grant suspensions do not include a grant-specific justification for the award’s termination.The Trump administration has come under fire from several federal judges for failing to define DEI and yet denying schools funds because of those violations.As stated in her June preliminary injunction, “The Executive may not set out to suppress ideas it deems dangerous by trying to drive them out of the marketplace of ideas,” even though a new presidential administration is free to create programs with its selected goals.
How we got here
Due to claims that the university isn’t doing enough to fight antisemitism, the Trump administration suspended UCLA’s grants. Despite the fact that all California public universities are prohibited from using affirmative action since state voters outlawed the practice in 1996, the National Science Foundation accused UCLA of doing so in a letter received on August 1.Additionally, the letter accused the university of using admissions essays to ascertain the race of applicants. However, in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned affirmative action, and the majority decision permitted colleges to let students speak about their race and identity in their application essays.When the Science Foundation discontinued its grants to Harvard University, it leveled identical charges against the university.
The 800 grant suspensions came after a federal Department of Justice report last month accused the college of failing to adequately combat antisemitism, namely in relation to incidents during the pro-Palestine protests last year, which included protestors’ overnight encampments. The report was released months after UCLA appointed a task committee to look into campus antisemitism and provide recommendations that the university’s administrators promised to follow.
The same day UCLA reached a $6.45 million settlement with four Jewish plaintiffs, that report was released. A number of pro-Palestinian instructors and students, some of whom are Jewish, protested that agreement.A federal judge in the lawsuit last year sided with the Jewish plaintiffs, who claimed that because of their spiritual links to Israel, the anti-Israel sentiment exhibited by protesters in the encampment violated their religious liberty. In his preliminary order, Judge Mark C. Scarsi stated that Jewish students were barred from parts of the UCLA campus due to their refusal to renounce their faith.
Several Jewish organizations argue over whether or not anti-Zionism is intrinsically antisemitic. There were Jewish attendees in the UCLA campsite.
A week or so later, on August 8, the Trump administration issued UCLA a $1 billion settlement proposal, which the university would pay in multiple installments to regain the science funding that had been suspended, CNN first reported. The settlement also aimed to outlaw overnight protests at UCLA, but prior to the pro-Palestine rallies that took place last spring, the university had already implemented such a regulation; last October, the UC reinforced it system-wide.
How California responded
At a news conference Friday, hours after CNN first reported Trump’s settlement demand, Governor Gavin Newsom claimed that Trump had threatened to coerce us with a billion-dollar fine unless we comply.When a reporter asked how California would react, Newsom responded, “We’ll sue last Friday.” The Trump administration has already been the target of 37 lawsuits from the state attorney general, some of which have to do with funding for education.At a news conference on Tuesday, White House news Secretary Karoline Leavitt urged Gavinat to “bring it on.”
In a statement regarding the $1 billion settlement demand, UC President James B. Milliken stated that a payment of this magnitude would severely injure our students and all Californians, as well as entirely destroy our nation’s best public university system. Additionally, UCLA has persisted in its marketing campaign emphasizing the advantages that its scientific and medical research offers for people.
The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California said in a statement Tuesday that the settlement demand did not increase the safety of Jewish schoolchildren. 39 nonprofit groups that provide family services, political activism, immigration legal aid, and other services are part of the advocacy coalition.The Jewish affairs committee highlighted a number of actions taken by UCLA and UC to reduce antisemitism and encourage safer campuses. According to the group, significant progress is already being made in California.
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