Win in AAUP v. Trump: Court Blocks Attacks on University of California System

In a historic wall-to-wall labor union lawsuit led by the AAUP, the US District Court for the Northern District of California has issued a preliminary injunction that will stop the Trump-Vance administration's attempt to unlawfully stifle free speech and academic freedom across the University of California (UC) system's ten campuses and medical centers. This marks a huge win for the broad coalition of faculty, staff, students, and labor unions that brought the lawsuit seeking to defend their First Amendment rights and to restore critical research funding.

Friday's decision orders a stop to the Trump administration's illegal weaponization of civil rights laws and federal funding to restrict free speech on UC campuses. During the hearing on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, the court noted the overwhelming evidence plaintiffs provided, which included numerous declarations from UC faculty and staff describing how the administration's actions have chilled their rights of speech and association. The UC is the second largest employer in California, a renowned driver of global innovation, and a critical vehicle for economic mobility for California families.

Plaintiffs include the American Association of University Professors, American Federation of Teachers and University Council-American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, Committee of Interns and Residents, Service Employees International Union, Teamsters Local 2010, International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America and UAW Local 4811, the University Professional and Technical Employees-Communication Workers of America, Council of UC Faculty Associations and campus-specific Faculty Associations 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.

The broad coalition of plaintiffs is represented in the matter by Altshuler Berzon LLP; Leonard Carder LLP; Democracy Forward; Schwartz, Steinsapir Dohrmann & Sommers LLP, Beeson; Tayer & Bodine; and counsel from AAUP, CNA/NNU, and CIR.

The case, American Association of University Professors et al v. Trump et al., was filed in September 2025 after the Trump-Vance administration began implementing its playbook of terminating federal funding to colleges and universities and then threatening those colleges and universities with the loss of additional federal funds in an attempt to exert ideological control over the nature and content of speech, research, and other expressive activities on campus.

The Trump-Vance administration's strong-arm tactics against the UC system came into full public view at the end of July 2025 when, in suddenly canceling almost $600 million in federal research grants to the University of California, Los Angeles, the administration cited reports of alleged antisemitism in 2024 protests at UCLA, as well as vague and unsupported allegations that UCLA was discriminating by using transgender-inclusive policies and "proxies" for race in college admissions.

Shortly thereafter, the administration sent the UC system a letter demanding that it cede control of its curricula and policies to the federal government. These demands would have forced the UC system to agree to a government-appointed monitor to oversee faculty hiring and promotion decisions and curriculum; adopt new protest restrictions and other restrictions on speech; disclose certain student disciplinary records; eliminate "diversity, equity, and inclusion" efforts; end gender-inclusive policies as relates to restrooms and other private spaces; engage in viewpoint discrimination in recruiting and admitting international students; and ban its medical centers from providing gender-affirming care to minors. These policy changes, if adopted, would violate the constitutional and state law rights of faculty, students, and staff. On top of these policy demands, the administration is demanding that the UCLA pay at least $1 billion to the federal government, despite no legal basis for imposing any such fine. At the time the Trump administration made these demands, similar government investigations were ongoing across the UC system.

Read the preliminary injunction decision issued today here and the order here.