This post was updated Aug. 31 at 10:55 p.m.
A district court judge said Tuesday she will hear arguments over whether UCLA’s suspended National Institutes of Health grants should be restored.
The federal government suspended around 800 grants to UCLA from the NIH, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy in late July. The federal government alleged in letters announcing the suspensions that the university enabled antisemitism in its research environments, illegally used affirmative action and has policies “allowing men to participate in women’s sports.”
Rita F. Lin, a California federal district court judge, will hear arguments from attorneys representing the federal government and UC researchers Sept. 18 to decide if she should grant a preliminary injunction, an action that preserves the status quo until a court can decide on the merits of the case. If ordered, the injunction will restore over $500 million in NIH grants to UCLA, according to an X post by Los Angeles Times reporter Jaweed Kaleem.
UC researchers filed an action against President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, the NSF and other defendants challenging the termination and suspension of federal research grants in June, after the researchers’ grants were suspended due to alleged diversity, equity and inclusion violations.
Lin sided with the researchers, ordering the federal government to reinstate the grants and preventing the agency from terminating future ones. In August, she concluded that the NSF’s suspension of grants at UCLA violated this previous injunction, and ordered the grants to be reinstated.
[Related: Court orders Trump administration to explain legality of NSF cuts to UCLA]
Lin will consider if the researchers whose NIH grants were suspended should proceed as a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration, said Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, in an emailed statement.
In an Aug. 22 emailed statement to the UCLA community, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said discoveries at UCLA lead “to medical breakthroughs, economic advancement, improved national security and greater global competitiveness.” He added that UCLA researchers conduct “life-saving and life changing research.”
UC President James Milliken said in an Aug. 6 statement that his immediate goal was to restore the suspended federal funding.
“The announced cuts would be a death knell for innovative work that saves lives, grows our economy and fortifies our national security,” he said in the statement.
The U.S. Department of Justice – whose attorneys represented the NSF in a previous hearing for the same case – did not respond in time to a request for comment.
“It is in our country’s best interest that funding would be restored,” Milliken said in the statement.
Contributing reports from Alexandra Crosnoe, News editor.
