UC Berkeley researchers team up for first-of-its-kind lawsuit over Trump funding cuts

BERKELEY, Calif. — University of California faculty members and researchers filed suit against President Donald Trump and several federal agencies late Wednesday in what they hope will become a first-of-its-kind class action challenging the administration’s sweeping cuts to research funding. 

The flurry of grant terminations has resulted in layoffs, the lawsuit states, and halted a variety of projects, ranging from studies on the effects of wildfire smoke to an effort to make all of Mark Twain’s work available to the public.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is the brainchild of Claudia Polsky, founding director of the environmental law clinic at the University of California, Berkeley. Though she didn’t face funding cuts herself, she said she felt inspired to organize colleagues — without any institutional backing — to file a suit that could have significant implications for other academics nationwide. 

“I really think the faculty are ultimately going to have to stand up for themselves,” said Polsky, who is also one of the attorneys on the case, along with UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

The University of California system is squarely in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Apart from cutting research grants it deemed unnecessary, the administration has accused UC of failing to adequately address antisemitism on its campuses. 

Late last month, Leo Terrell, a senior counsel at the Justice Department who leads the federal antisemitism task force investigating the UC system, told Fox News there would be “massive lawsuits” against the UC system and other colleges.  

A UC system spokesperson said it is cooperating with the administration. “The University of California abhors antisemitism and is diligently working to address, counter and eradicate it in all its forms across the system.” 

The UC system, which has 10 campuses, conducts around 8% of all academic research in the country. The lawsuit was filed by five UC Berkeley staff members and one at UC San Francisco, all of whom recently lost funding, according to the suit. It accuses a host of government agencies of disregarding federal regulations and violating the researchers’ free speech and due process rights by cutting funding for their studies based on questionable financial concerns or because of their subject matter and failing to follow legally required steps.