In the latest legal loss for the Trump administration, a federal judge on Monday evening ordered executive officials to restore grants they terminated to the University of California.
The ruling, from Judge Rita F. Lin of the Northern District of California, was flagged on X by Politico's Kyle Cheney.
The grants were terminated on the basis of the research including topics and keywords blacklisted by the Trump administration, primarily work involving diversity, equity and inclusion. Among the canceled grants were for a study that looked into how wildfire smoke disproportionately harms communities of color.
This is almost certainly unlawful, wrote Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden.
"Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the termination of grants for research involving blacklisted topics like 'diversity' and 'equity' violates the First Amendment and runs contrary to Congress’s specific directives to support research concerning — and foster greater involvement in the sciences of — underrepresented groups," wrote Lin. "Although a new presidential administration is entitled to develop programs with its chosen priorities, the Executive may not set out to suppress ideas it deems dangerous by trying to drive them out of the marketplace of ideas, and may not do so by canceling grants on the basis that they serve the very purposes for which Congress appropriated the funds."
These fundings cuts, if allowed to continue, wrote Lin, would likely cause layoffs, as well as disruptions to research and education.
"Plaintiffs are also likely to succeed on their claims that the en masse terminations via form letter were arbitrary and capricious," Lin wrote. "The law requires administrative agencies to provide reasoned explanations for their decisions, particularly when changing a longstanding practice and abruptly upending years of planning and work. The form termination letters here appear to be in blatant violation of that requirement."
Trump has worked to purge any endorsement of DEI from the federal government and has often required companies doing business with the federal government to abandon their diversity programs as well. The effort to root these programs out has been so extreme that even some businesses that have the acronym "DEI" for unrelated reasons fear reprisal.