Latest news with #RitaLin
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US judge orders Trump administration to restore part of UCLA's frozen funding
A US judge on Tuesday ordered Donald Trump's administration to restore a part of the federal grant funding that it recently suspended for the University of California, Los Angeles. US district judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that the grant funding suspensions violated an earlier June preliminary injunction where she ordered the National Science Foundation to restore dozens of grants that it had terminated at the University of California. That order had blocked the agency from cancelling other grants at the University of California system, of which UCLA is a part. 'NSF's actions violate the Preliminary Injunction,' Lin, an appointee of Democratic former president Joe Biden, wrote. The White House and the university had no immediate comment on the ruling. UCLA said last week the government froze $584m in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over pro-Palestinian student protests against US ally Israel's military assault on Gaza. The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that the judge's order asked for the restoration of more than a third of the suspended $584m funding. The University of California said last week it was reviewing a settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA in which the university will pay $1bn. It said such a large payment would 'devastate' the institution. The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel's war in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president's threats. The Democratic California governor, Gavin Newsom, called the Trump administration's settlement offer a form of extortion. Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last month, UCLA agreed to pay over $6m to settle a lawsuit alleging antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters. Rights advocates note a rise in antisemitism, anti-Arab bias and Islamophobia due to conflict in the Middle East. The Trump administration has not announced equivalent investigations into Islamophobia. The government has settled its investigations with Columbia University, which agreed to pay over $220m, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50m. Both accepted certain government demands. Settlement talks with Harvard University are ongoing.
CBS News
3 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Judge rules federal government must restore parts of UCLA's suspended research grants
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore a portion of research grants it had suspended from UCLA earlier this month, after the U.S. Department of Justice alleged civil rights violations. In a court order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) had violated a temporary restraining order she had issued on June 23, which blocked federal research grant "terminations." Her ruling in June was in a class-action lawsuit brought by researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley. Lin enjoined the NSF, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from "giving effect to any grant termination that results in the termination of funding." Lin said the NSF violated her previous ruling with its decision to suspend research funding to UCLA. She ordered that all grants suspended by the agency between July 30 and Aug. 12 be restored. On July 31, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk wrote a letter to the university community announcing it had lost federal research funding from the NSF, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies. Frenk said that the federal government was claiming "antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for the suspension of funds. On Aug. 6, Frenk provided an update that his office estimated about $584 million would be impacted by the funding freeze. According to court documents, attorneys for the NSF argued that the recent funding freeze to UCLA was a "suspension" of funds rather than a "termination," which they said is different from what Lin prohibited in her June ruling. In response to the NSF's argument, Lin said, "NSF's indefinite suspensions differ from a termination in name only… NSF may have re-labeled its action a 'suspension,' but it is a distinction without a difference in this case." She said NSF has until Aug. 19 to provide a status report confirming it is complying with her ruling. CBS Los Angeles has reached out to the White House, the NSF and UCLA for a comment on the matter and is waiting for a response.
UPI
3 days ago
- Politics
- UPI
Judge orders White House to restore part of UCLA's federal funds
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that her previous order had been violated, which said the administration must restore million in research funding back to UCLA (school entrance pictured 2020) from the National Science Foundation. However, it's not immediately clear how much in federal funding will be returned. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A judge ordered hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to be partially restored to the University of California, Los Angeles, after the Trump administration cut more than a half-billion dollars in federal money. U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin ruled that the pause violated her previous order which said the administration must restore millions in research funding from the National Science Foundation, but the exact amount that would be reinstated was not immediately clear. Around 800 grants last month were suspended by the Trump administration over accusations of anti-Semitism on the school campus. The U.S. Department of Justice claimed that UCLA failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students during pro-Palestine protests that erupted on campus, among others throughout the country over Israel's war with Hamas and the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. UCLA is in the middle of a billion-dollar settlement proposal with the federal government, following Columbia University, which agreed to pay $221 million in fines to settle similar accusations against the private New York City university. On Tuesday, former President Joe Biden's HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, now a candidate for California governor, called it a "ransom payment" in a social media post and urged university leaders to "stand strong" in the face of "authoritarian threats." At UCLA, the funding cuts impacted federal funding via the National Science Foundation and other agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy gutting nearly $585 million from the university's bottom line. But Tuesday's ruling, which was brought on by university researchers, is expected to apply to only roughly 300 grants. Meanwhile, Lin gave the White House one week to comply with her order or issue an outline why UCLA's funding had not been restored as instructed. The administration has the option to appeal Tuesday's ruling to the San Francisco-headquartered U.S. Ninth Circuit. On Wednesday, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., called UCLA the president's "latest target in his war on America's top universities" and noted the $584 million funding restoration was over a third of what was frozen in July. "We'll keep standing up for academic freedom," Padilla posted on X before Noon.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump administration ordered to partially restore UCLA funding
A district judge on Tuesday ordered the partial restoration of federal funding to the University of California, Los Angeles, after the Trump administration paused more than $550 million to the institution. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that some of the paused grants violate a previous preliminary injunction where she said the administration had to restore funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that was stripped back in June. The Los Angeles Times reported UCLA will see one-third of the funding restored from this decision. The judge gave the Trump administration until Aug. 19 to prove it has unfrozen funds or to provide an explanation on why the steps have not been taken. The Hill has reached out to the NSF and the University of California system for comment. The decision comes as the White House is eyeing a $1 billion settlement with the university for the federal funding to be restored, along with other concessions such as changes to admissions practices and a ban on transgender athletes competing in girl's sports. The pulled grants came after the Department of Justice determined UCLA was violating civil rights law due to antisemitism on campus. The University of California is engaged in conversation with the Trump administration to restore the funding and the institution's ability to apply for new grants. 'Currently, a total of approximately $584 million in extramural award funding is suspended and at risk,' Julio Frenk, chancellor of the university, wrote in a letter that went out to the community. 'If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA and for Americans across the nation.'
Forbes
3 days ago
- Politics
- Forbes
Judge Orders Restoration Of Some Of UCLA's Suspended Federal Grants
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin has ordered the Trump administration to restore a portion of the federal grants it had suspended for the University of California, Los Angeles earlier this month. The ruling represents a partial, if only temporary, victory for the university in its dispute with the government over allegations that it had violated various civil rights laws. In her order on Tuesday, Lin ruled that the National Science Foundation had violated a temporary restraining order she had issued on June 23 covering grants to University of California researchers from the EPA, NSF, or NEH. At that time, Lin enjoined those agencies from 'giving effect to any grant termination that results in the termination of funding… where the termination was communicated by means of a form termination notice that does not provide a grant-specific explanation for the termination that states the reason for the change to the original award decision and considers the reliance interests at stake.' Lin found that NSF had violated that order by suspending funding for UCLA research, and she ordered that all suspended grants from the agency between July 30 and Aug. 12 be restored. The ruling appears to cover about 300 NSF grants, representing a sizable proportion of the $584 million in federal awards the administration had frozen at UCLA. Grants from the National Institutes of Health are not included in her new ruling. Attorneys for the government had argued that the recent UCLA funding freeze was an 'indefinite suspension,' making it distinguishable from the grant 'terminations' that Lin had prohibited with her ruling in June. However, Lin dismissed that logic as mere semantics, writing 'suspensions differ from a termination in name only.' She added, 'NSF may have re-labeled its action a suspension, but it is a distinction without a difference in this case. After all, a terminated grant can be reinstated, just as a suspension can be 'lifted.' And a suspension, if it is of indefinite length, is functionally identical to a termination from the researcher's perspective.' Last week, the Trump administration demanded that UCLA pay $1 billion and make changes in various campus policies and rules as a way to resolve the government's charges that the institution had committed civil rights violations and practiced illegal affirmative action. That payment would have allowed the university to regain access to its grant money. UCLA finds itself as the first high-profile public institution to have its research funding threatened by the government over what many higher education leaders believe is a by-now-familiar strategy that relies on questionable charges and coercive tactics. Columbia University has negotiated a $200+ million settlement with the administration, an approach that Brown University also followed with a $50 million payment. Harvard University and Cornell University are reportedly still in negotiations with the government over potential settlements. UC System President James Milliken responded that UC was 'reviewing' the administration's demands, adding last week that 'as a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country's greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians.' Milliken also said the university 'offered to engage in good faith dialogue with the Department to protect the University and its critical research mission.' However, the UCLA dispute has quickly escalated into political theater. California Governor Gavin Newsom said "Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ (Department of Justice) to kneecap America's #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom," in an August 9 post on X. "California won't bow to Trump's disgusting political extortion," he added. Yesterday the Trump team fired back. "Bring it on, Gavin," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, when she was asked about Newsom's response to the government's demands of UCLA. "This administration is well within its legal right to do this, and we want to ensure that our colleges and our universities are respecting the 1st Amendment rights and the religious liberties of students on their campuses and UCLA has failed to do that, and I have a whole list of examples that I will forward to Gavin Newsom's press office, if he hasn't seen them himself," Leavitt said.
