Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman: “On the week that the Constitution was signed 238 years ago, we are honored to represent this powerful coalition of working people, who have come together to defend free speech and challenge this unlawful march toward autocracy.”
Washington, D.C. – Democracy Forward and co-counsel filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a broad coalition of faculty, staff, students, and labor unions on Tuesday asking the court to block the Trump-Vance administration from further use of financial threats to coerce the University of California (UC) system to accede to demands that will harm faculty, staff, and students, in violation of the Constitution and existing law.
The Trump-Vance administration has attempted to implement a playbook to threaten colleges and universities based on a disdain for, and disagreement with, the content of those institutions’ curriculum, the nature and content of the expressive activity that has taken place at those institutions, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives.
Read the filing here.
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Associated Press: University of California students, professors and staff sue the Trump administration
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Trump administration is using civil rights laws to wage a campaign against the University of California in an attempt to curtail academic freedom and undermine free speech, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by faculty, staff, student organizations and every labor union representing UC workers.
The lawsuit comes weeks after the Trump administration fined the University of California, Los Angeles $1.2 billion and froze research funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus and other civil rights violations. It was the first public university to be targeted with a widespread funding freeze. The administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against elite private colleges, including Harvard, Brown and Columbia.
According to the lawsuit, the Trump administration has made several demands in its proposed settlement offer to UCLA, including giving government access to faculty, student, and staff data, releasing admissions and hiring data, ending diversity scholarships, banning overnight demonstrations on university property and cooperating with immigration enforcement.
The coalition that sued is led by the American Association of University Professors union, or AAUP, and represented by Democracy Forward, a legal group that has brought other lawsuits against the Trump administration over frozen federal funds.
“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely,” the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco said.
Washington Post: Groups sue administration over funding freeze at University of California
A national coalition of labor and advocacy groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday, calling its suspension of federal research funding and sweeping demands of the University of California system unconstitutional and unlawful.
The complaint was filed Tuesday in federal district court by the American Association of University Professors, Democracy Forward, and numerous other labor unions and organizations that represent tens of thousands of faculty members, students and staff members across the large public university system.
UC regents were scheduled to gather Tuesday for their first public meeting since Justice Department officials demanded more than $1 billion from the University of California at Los Angeles before the Trump administration would restore research funding that was frozen this summer. The administration held back the money after it accused the university of not doing enough to combat antisemitism on campus.
The lawsuit details numerous demands, also reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times, made by the Trump administration of UCLA. They include eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs; ceding control over university admissions, hiring and curriculum to an outside monitor; reporting student disciplinary records; and other measures.
The Trump administration has sought to exert ideological control over higher education, the lawsuit contends, “through a scheme of targeting, bullying and unconstitutional actions aimed at institutions of higher education across the country.”
KESQ News Channel 3: UC employees, students sue Trump administration over UCLA cuts
LOS ANGELES (KESQ) – A coalition of labor unions and faculty associations representing UC employees today filed suit seeking to stop the Trump administration from suspending research grants and seeking a $1.2-billion fine against UCLA.
The lawsuit filed in federal court for the Northern District of California accuses the administration of President Donald Trump of attempting to unlawfully stifle free speech within the UC system.
The coalition is seeking a court order to block the Trump administration from further use of financial threats to “coerce” the UC system to accede to demands that plaintiffs allege will harm faculty, staff and students, in violation of the Constitution and existing law.
According to the plaintiffs, the Trump administration has attempted to implement a playbook to threaten colleges and universities based on a disdain for the institutions’ curriculum, the nature and content of the activity that has taken place at those institutions, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives.
“In America, there is no king,” said Skye Perryman, president and chief executive of Democracy Forward, a legal organization representing the coalition of unions and faculty associations. “Under our Constitution, the President cannot force people to think like he does, believe like he does, nor be exposed to only the ideas he agrees with. Yet, he’s trying to do just that. The Trump-Vance administration’s attempt to stop students, faculty, and staff at UC campuses from exercising their First Amendment rights and to unlawfully seek to intimidate educational institutions is a callous dismissal of one of the most important pillars of our democracy.”
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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.