A Biden-appointed federal judge has stepped in to shield the University of California from the Trump administration’s attempt to pull federal funding over alleged civil rights violations — including discrimination and antisemitism across the UC system. And the ruling wasn’t just a pause; it came wrapped in the kind of politically charged language you’d expect from a judge handpicked by Joe Biden.
U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin ruled Friday night that the Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to UC or impose fines while the lawsuits proceed. According to Lin, labor unions and UC faculty offered “overwhelming evidence” that the administration was running a campaign to purge “woke,” “left,” and “socialist” viewpoints from top universities. Yes, she wrote that — apparently criticizing the federal government for daring to hold universities accountable.
Lin accused the administration of executing a “playbook” of launching civil rights investigations into major universities as a way to justify cutting their funding, saying the goal was to force them to “change their ideological tune.” She declared the administration’s actions “coercive and retaliatory,” claiming violations of the First and Tenth Amendments and arguing UC faculty speech had been “chilled.”
In other words, according to the judge, enforcing civil rights laws and cracking down on antisemitism is now a First Amendment violation. Quite a twist.
Lin also argued that UCLA is being harmed daily by being blocked from applying for new federal grants, which she claims “ratchets up Defendants’ pressure campaign.” She said numerous UC faculty and staff have submitted statements saying the administration’s actions have chilled speech across the system. Of course, she did not mention that the speech “chilled” often seems to involve antisemitism, disruption, and violence — but that’s another story.
Back in February, Leo Terrell, senior counsel in Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s office and a member of the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, announced the administration’s nationwide campus visits — including two UC campuses — saying the mission was to “bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate Anti-Semitism, particularly in schools.”
The UC investigations escalated in August when the administration demanded that UCLA pay a staggering $1 billion settlement for civil rights violations linked to antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests. The proposed settlement required UCLA to pay in installments, create a $172 million fund for discrimination victims, overhaul protest and scholarship policies, and eliminate funding for gender-affirming care at its hospital system.
The Justice Department and Department of Education previously suspended more than half a billion dollars in funding to UCLA for refusing to negotiate over the antisemitism allegations.
Meanwhile, chaos has continued on UC campuses. Assistant Attorney General Dhillon pointed to recent Antifa violence at a Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley as yet another sign of worsening conditions. RedState has long documented how free speech rights — especially for conservative students — are inconsistently applied at UC campuses, including in 2023 when Charlie Kirk’s speech at UC Davis was violently disrupted.
Now, thanks to Judge Lin’s ruling, the UC system gets temporary protection from the consequences of its own actions — while the administration’s effort to confront antisemitism, discrimination, and ideological intimidation on campus hits another judicial roadblock.
Still, the fight isn’t over. The investigation continues, the findings are piling up, and the public is paying attention. And that alone is a step in the right direction for restoring accountability in America’s universities.
