SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 21, 2025: The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today in Thakur v. Trump, denying the federal government’s motion to stay a preliminary injunction ordering federal agencies to reinstate University of California (UC) research grants the agencies had terminated pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Orders.

By its ruling, the appellate panel kept in force the district court’s preliminary injunction, thereby ensuring that grant funding will continue to flow while the government’s appeal of the injunction continues. 

In its decision, the panel upheld the district court’s determination that plaintiffs, who are researchers at UC, are likely to ultimately prevail on their claims that the Trump Administration’s grant terminations, via “form letters” that merely asserted the grants “no longer effectuate[]” the Administration’s “needs and priorities,” violated the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. The panel also confirmed that plaintiffs had established that the preliminary injunction needed to remain in force, pending completion of the government’s appeal, to prevent “considerable harm to Plaintiffs and the public” resulting from “layoffs, interruptions to graduate programs, destruction of research projects, and injury to Plaintiffs’ professional reputations.”

“This is a huge win for our clients and the federally-funded research conducted throughout the UC System. Ensuring that the government cannot continue to deny grant funding while it appeals the preliminary injunction allows this important research to continue,” said Farella Partner Linda Gilleran.

The class action lawsuit, filed in June in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, asserts that the government’s grant terminations violate the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as plaintiffs’ and class members’ constitutional rights, including their First Amendment right to free speech and Fifth Amendment right to due process. On June 23, Judge Rita F. Lin issued a class-wide preliminary injunction, ordering the government to cease grant terminations under President Trump’s and the agencies’ unlawful directives, and to reinstate previously-terminated research grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The plaintiff class is represented by Tony Schoenberg, Linda Gilleran, Don Sobelman, Kyle McLorg, Dylan Silva, and Katherine Balkoski with Farella Braun + Martel LLP; Elizabeth Cabraser, Richard Heimann, Kevin Budner, Annie Wanless, and Nabila Abdallah with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP; and Erwin Chemerinsky and Claudia Polsky.

Read the original complaint here and the Ninth Circuit’s order here.

About Farella

Farella Braun + Martel is a leading Northern California law firm representing corporate and private clients in sophisticated business and real estate transactions and complex commercial, civil, and criminal litigation. Clients seek our imaginative legal solutions and the dynamism and intellectual creativity of our lawyers. We are headquartered in San Francisco and maintain an office in the Napa Valley focused on the wine industry.