{"id":21602,"date":"2025-09-18T21:13:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T04:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/federal-judge-says-she-is-inclined-to-order-trump-restore-500-million-in-ucla-grants\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T21:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T04:13:06","slug":"federal-judge-says-she-is-inclined-to-order-trump-restore-500-million-in-ucla-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/federal-judge-says-she-is-inclined-to-order-trump-restore-500-million-in-ucla-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge says she is ‘inclined’ to order Trump restore $500 million in UCLA grants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal Judge Inclined to Order Trump to Restore $500 Million in UCLA Grants<\/h1>\n

Introduction to the Case<\/h2>\n

A federal judge Thursday said she was \u201cinclined to extend\u201d an earlier ruling and order the Trump administration to restore an additional $500 million in UCLA medical research grants that were frozen in response to the university\u2019s alleged campus antisemitism violations.<\/p>\n

Background on the Ruling<\/h2>\n

Although she did not issue a formal ruling late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin indicated she is leaning toward reversing \u2014 for now \u2014 the vast majority of funding freezes that University of California leaders say have endangered the future of the 10-campus, multi-hospital system.<\/p>\n

Reasoning Behind the Judge’s Decision<\/h3>\n

Lin, a judge in the Northern District of California, said she was prepared to add UCLA\u2019s National Institutes of Health grant recipients to an ongoing class-action lawsuit that has already led to the reversal of tens of millions of dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Endowment for the Humanities and other federal agencies to UC campuses. The judge\u2019s reasoning: The UCLA grants were suspended by form letters that were unspecific to the research, a likely violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which regulates executive branch rulemaking.<\/p>\n

Potential Impact of the Ruling<\/h4>\n

Though Lin said she had a \u201clot of homework to do\u201d on the matter, she indicated that reversing the grant cuts was \u201clikely where I will land\u201d and she would issue an order \u201cshortly.\u201d Lin said the Trump administration had undertaken a \u201cfundamental sin\u201d in its \u201cun-reasoned mass terminations\u201d of the grants using \u201cletters that don\u2019t go through the required factors that the agency is supposed to consider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal Arguments and Proceedings<\/h2>\n

The possible preliminary injunction would be in place as the case proceeds through the courts. But in saying she leaned toward broadening the case, Lin suggested she believed there would be irreparable harm if the suspensions were not immediately reversed. The suit was filed in June by UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley professors fighting a separate, earlier round of Trump administration grant clawbacks. The University of California is not a party in the case.<\/p>\n

Government’s Response<\/h3>\n

A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer, Jason Altabet, said Thursday that instead of a federal district court lawsuit filed by professors, the proper venue would be the U.S. Court of Federal Claims filed by UC. Altabet based his arguments on a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government\u2019s suspension of $783 million in NIH grants \u2014 to universities and research centers throughout the country \u2014 in part because the issue, the high court said, was not properly within the jurisdiction of a lower federal court.<\/p>\n

Impact on UCLA and Research Community<\/h2>\n

The hundreds of NIH grants on hold at UCLA look into Parkinson\u2019s disease treatment, cancer recovery, cell regeneration in nerves and other areas that campus leaders argue are pivotal for improving the health of Americans. The Trump administration has proposed a roughly $1.2-billion fine and demanded campus changes over admission of international students and protest rules. Federal officials have also called for UCLA to release detailed admission data, ban gender-affirming healthcare for minors and give the government deep access to UCLA internal campus data, among other demands, in exchange for restoring $584 million in funding to the university.<\/p>\n

Researchers’ Concerns<\/h3>\n

In addition to allegations that the university has not seriously dealt with complaints of antisemitism on campus, the government also said it slashed UCLA funding in response to its findings that the campus illegally considers race in admissions and \u201cdiscriminates against and endangers women\u201d by recognizing the identities of transgender people. UCLA has said it has made changes to improve campus climate for Jewish communities and does not use race in admissions. Its chancellor, Julio Frenk, has said that defunding medical research \u201cdoes nothing\u201d to address discrimination allegations.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

UC leaders said they will not pay the $1.2-billion fine and are negotiating with the Trump administration over its other demands. They have told The Times that many settlement proposals cross the university\u2019s red lines. A ruling Lin issued in the case last month resulted in $81 million in NSF grants restored to UCLA. If the UCLA NIH grants are reinstated, it would leave about $3 million from the July suspensions \u2014 all Department of Energy grants \u2014 still frozen at UCLA. The hearing was closely watched by researchers at the Westwood campus, who have cut back on lab hours, reduced operations and considered layoffs as the crisis at UCLA moves toward the two-month mark.<\/p>\n

FAQs<\/h2>\n