Demonstrators rally at UCLA on April 8 during a “Kill the Cuts” protest against the Trump administration’s research funding cuts.

UCLA students and researchers protest against the Trump administration’s funding cuts on April 8. The Trump administration threatened to cut funding across the University of California system unless it imposed conditions in line with the president’s ideological agenda

This summer, the Trump administration canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants to UCLA and threatened the loss of federal funding throughout the University of California system unless it imposed conditions in line with President Donald Trump’s ideological agenda. The demands included restricting on-campus protests, ending diversity-related scholarships and conforming to the administration’s definitions of gender identity.

On Nov. 14, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s unpopular efforts to squash academic freedom at the University of California. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin concluded that by using threats of economic devastation, the Trump administration had “engaged in coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First Amendment and the 10th Amendment.” The administration may appeal the ruling, but has not done so yet.  

A historic coalition of 21 unions and organizations representing over 150,000 workers and faculty in the UC system — among them nurses, cafeteria workers, building custodians, graduate students working as academic employees, medical residents and professors — served as the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Trump administration. At a time when even the most powerful Republican elected officials admit to being afraid of........

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