The Trump-Vance administration has attempted to force its agenda onto colleges and universities based on opposition to the content of curriculum, the nature and content of the expressive activity at those institutions, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives.
The administration cancelled almost $600 million in research grants to a University of California (UC) campus in July 2025, based on reports of antisemitism in protests and vague and unsupported allegations that UC was discriminating by using “proxies” for race in college admissions and transgender-inclusive policies.
These actions were followed on August 8, 2025, by a demand letter insisting that the UC system, the second-largest employer in California, cede control to the federal government and to a government-appointed monitor over certain curriculum, hiring and promotion decisions, adopt new protest restrictions and other restrictions on speech, eliminate “diversity, equity, and inclusion” efforts, and end gender-inclusive policies related to restrooms and other private spaces, among other policy changes. On top of these demands, the administration is requiring that the UC pay at least $1 billion to the federal government, despite no legal basis for imposing any such fine.
In response to these attacks, on September 16, 2025, Democracy Forward, along with our co-counsel at Altshuler Berzon LLP, filed a lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of faculty, staff, students, and labor unions to stop the Trump-Vance administration’s attempt to unlawfully stifle free speech within the UC system. The coalition is asking the court to block the administration from further using financial threats to coerce the UC system into acceding to demands that would harm faculty, staff, and students, in violation of the Constitution and existing law.
The coalition includes the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and University Council–American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, the California Nurses Association (CNA)/National Nurses United (NNA), Teamsters Local 2010, International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) and UAW Local 4811, the University Professional and Technical Employees–Communication Workers of America (UPTE), Council of UC Faculty Associations and campus-specific Faculty Associations (UCFAs) comprised of the Berkeley Faculty Association, Davis Faculty Association, Irvine Faculty Association, Riverside Faculty Association, San Diego Faculty Association, Santa Cruz Faculty Association, UC Merced Faculty Association, UC Santa Barbara Faculty Association, UCSF Faculty Association, and University of California Los Angeles Faculty Association.
On October 10, 2025, the coalition filed a motion for preliminary injunction, asking the court to stop the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful policy while the case continues.
The case is American Association of University Professors et al v. Trump et al.