The University of California system is taking the Trump administration to court, accusing it of weaponizing civil rights laws to stifle academic freedom and limit free speech.
On Tuesday, a coalition of UC students, faculty, staff, and every labor union representing UC workers filed a lawsuit in federal court. They argue that the administration’s actions amount to an attack on higher education.
The lawsuit follows last month’s unprecedented move against UCLA, when the Trump administration fined the campus \$1.2 billion and froze its research funding, alleging civil rights violations and antisemitism on campus. While the government has also targeted private universities like Harvard, Brown, and Columbia, UCLA was the first public institution hit with a sweeping funding freeze.
According to the lawsuit, the administration’s proposed settlement demands go far beyond addressing antisemitism. They include handing over faculty, student, and staff data to the government, releasing admissions and hiring records, eliminating diversity scholarships, banning overnight campus protests, and cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
Neither the Justice Department nor the UC president’s office responded to requests for comment.
The case is being led by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and represented by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, which has challenged the administration in other funding disputes.
In their filing, the plaintiffs accuse the government of using the abrupt cancellation of federal research funds as a weapon:
“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed … has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely.”
UC President James Milliken called the actions one of the greatest threats in the university system’s 157-year history. He noted that the UC system depends on more than $17 billion in federal support each year, including $10 billion for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as major research and student aid funding.
The administration has increasingly tied federal funding to sweeping reforms at universities, arguing that elite schools are “overrun by liberalism and antisemitism.” It has also launched investigations into diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, claiming they discriminate against white and Asian American students.
Earlier this summer, Columbia University settled similar allegations by paying $200 million and regained access to more than $400 million in frozen federal research grants. The administration is now using that deal as a blueprint for other universities, with heavy financial penalties expected as part of the negotiations. Photo by Satyriconi, Wikimedia commons.
