Federal judge orders Trump to restore $500 million frozen UCLA medical research grant

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore $500 million in UCLA medical research grants on Monday, which has now stopped the nearly two-month funding crisis, which UC leaders say threatens the future of the U.S. prime minister’s public university system.

The opinions of U.S. District Judge Rita Lin of the Northern District of California have added hundreds of grants from the National Institutes of Health, an ongoing class action lawsuit that has led to the National Science Foundation, the National Science Protection Agency, National and other federal agencies to reverse millions of dollars in grants.

Lin’s order provided the biggest relief for UCLA, but affected federal funding on all 10 UC campuses. Lin ruled that the NIH grant was suspended by letters on inappropriate research forms, which may violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which stipulates the rulemaking of the administrative department.

In addition to Medicaid freezes (which prompted talk about possible layoffs from UCLA or lab closures for cancer and stroke studies, Lin said the Lin government must restore less funding to UC schools by the Ministry of Defense and Transport.

Lin elaborated on her thoughts at a hearing Thursday, saying the Trump administration took “basic crimes” against the grant in its “basic crimes” without the original mass termination, which used “letters that did not go through the required factors the agency should consider.”

As the case goes through the court, a preliminary injunction will be made. However, when expanding the case, Lin agreed to the plaintiff’s consent, and if the suspension is not immediately revoked, it will cause irreparable harm.

The judge, Biden-appointed, told the Justice Department attorney to file a court before September 29, explaining that the administration has taken “all steps” to comply with her orders, or, if necessary, why resuming the grant is “not feasible”.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH, the Justice Department did not answer questions about the government’s next steps after the New York Times ruling on Monday. The Trump administration has filed an earlier ruling with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Last month, the appeals court refused to reverse Lin’s ruling.

The lawsuit was originally filed in June by professors at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, fighting another round of Trump administration’s Grant Clawbacks. Other UCLA teachers later joined the case. The University of California is not a party for litigation.

The ongoing UC negotiations with the Trump administration are good news for UC researchers,” said Claudia Polsky, a law professor at UC Berkeley, who is part of the legal team behind the lawsuit. “In NIH funds alone, more than $50 in UCLA can be restored, which provides the strongest hand for UC to resist illegal federal demands. ”

Attorneys in the Trump administration opposed the proposal of more grant freezes, saying the case was a wrong jurisdiction.

Attorney Jason Altabet, a Justice Department attorney, said at the hearing that the appropriate point the professor filed would be a lawsuit filed in the U.S. federal court, not a district court lawsuit filed by the professor. Altabet is based on his recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government suspended $783 million in $783 million in NIH grants nationwide — universities and research centers across the country — in part because the High Court said the issue was not correct under the jurisdiction of the lower federal court.

Altabet said the government “fully embraces the principles in the Supreme Court’s recent view.”

The previous court order in the case and other cases nationwide was issued a government notice to campus within a few days saying funds would flow again.

The Trump administration revoked a $584 million UCLA grant in late July, citing campus anti-Semitism, the use of race in admissions and the school’s recognition of transgender identity as its reasons. The award includes $81 million from the National Science Foundation – also restored by Lin last month – and $3 million from the Department of Energy, which remains suspended.

Last month, the government proposed a fine of about $1.2 billion and asked campuses to make extensive changes to requirements such as admissions, protest rules, gender health care for minors, and disclosure of internal campus records, among other requirements in exchange for money.

UCLA said it changed last year to improve the Jewish community climate and did not use racial enrollment. Its Prime Minister Julio Frenk said grants to medical research “to no avail” to resolve allegations of discrimination. The university demonstrates websites and policies to recognize gender identity and maintain LGBTQ+ community services.

UC leaders said they would not pay a $1.2 billion fine or negotiate with the Trump administration over their other requests. They have told the New York Times that many settlement proposals crossed the university’s red line.

“Recent federal cuts in research funding threaten biomedical research, the U.S. economic competitiveness, and harm the health of Americans who rely on cutting-edge medicine and innovation,” a UC spokesperson said in a statement Thursday after Lin’s latest hearing. “While the University of California is not the party in the lawsuit, the UC system is engaging in funding for important research programs in the fields of humanities, social sciences and STEM.”

Researchers on the Westwood campus watched the case closely, with their lab working less hours, which reduced operations and considered layoffs as the UCLA crisis moved towards a two-month mark.

Neil Garg, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA, suspended a $2.9 million grant in the summer, saying “people on campus will be overly banned.”

“It’s incredibly warm to hear this decision from a scientific point of view,” Garg said. “But we’ll wait and see how things work.”

Garg’s 19-person lab is dedicated to developing new organic chemical reactions that may have drug applications. “We are trying to invent unknown chemistry,” he explained.

No one in Garg’s lab lost his job after grants. Garg has been applying for new funding sources since the suspension. “I, like many colleagues, are very active when applying for more funds,” he said. “Even if the funds are restored, we don’t know how quickly or how permanent this will happen.”

Staff member Daniel Miller contributed to the report.