Trump officials froze California university’s federal grant funds in August over allegations of civil rights violations
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore $500m in federal grant funding that it froze at the University of California, Los Angeles.
US district judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction on Monday, saying the government probably violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires specific procedures and explanations for federal funding cuts. Instead, the government informed UCLA in generalized form letters that multiple grants from various agencies were being suspended but offered no specific details.
In August, UCLA announced that the Trump administration had suspended $584m in federal grants over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action.
Lin issued a ruling later that month that resulted in $81m in grants from the National Science Foundation being restored to UCLA. She ruled that those cuts had violated a June preliminary injunction where she ordered the National Science Foundation to restore dozens of grants that it had terminated at the University of California, which operates 10 campuses across the state.
