A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Institutes of Health, Department of Transportation, and Department of Defense must restore more than $500 million in grant funding for research across the University of California system that has been frozen since August.
The preliminary injunction is one of several rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in favor of researchers across the UC system who have turned to the courts in response to action by the Trump administration. In August, Lin ordered the National Science Foundation to restore $81 million in frozen grant money, citing lack of specificity for the cancellations. Monday’s ruling follows a similar logic, citing the Administrative Procedure Act and arguing the cancellations did not provide detailed-enough rationales.
In total, federal agencies froze $584 million in research grants to the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Trump administration reportedly eyed a $1.2-billion fine to settle claims of alleged antisemitism on the campus.
James B. Milliken, the UC system president, responded to the publication of that proposed fine and other alleged demands in a message to the university community, writing that increased federal action is “one of the gravest threats” to the university system in its history.
Lin gave federal agencies until September 29 to comply with her ruling or report back detailing why they haven’t.
