Class Action Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Canceled UC Research Grants
Today, Farella Braun + Martel LLP, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, and the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump Administration, challenging the recent termination of University of California (UC) research grants by President Trump, through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The lawsuit, filed late yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, declares that the grant terminations violate free speech under the First Amendment and the right to due process under the Fifth Amendment, among others. The plaintiffs are a group of six University of California faculty and other researchers. On behalf of themselves and a class of UC researchers who have suffered grant terminations, the plaintiffs are seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) to restore their lost funding and to prevent further grant terminations.
As detailed in the complaint, DOGE’s abrupt cancellations of already awarded grants “ignored or contradicted the purposes for which Congress created the granting agencies and appropriated funds and dispensed with the regular procedures and due process afforded grantees under the Administrative Procedure Act, in implementing the Trump Administration’s political ‘cost-cutting’ agenda and ideological purity campaign.” According to the plaintiffs, these grant terminations are occurring not because the grant-funded research departed from its originally approved purpose, but because that purpose is now viewed as incompatible with the political agenda and ideological requirements of the Trump Administration.
“The funding cuts by the federal government and DOGE have disrupted crucial and important research throughout the University of California network. These cuts are clear Constitutional violations, and we hope the court grants our TRO to restore the vital U.C. research enterprise,” said Farella Partner Anthony Schoenberg.
The plaintiff class is led by Elizabeth Cabraser and Richard Heimann with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, Farella’s Schoenberg, and Erwin Chemerinsky and Claudia Polsky with the U.C. Berkeley School of Law.
Read the complaint 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.
Contact:
Cheryl Loof
Farella Braun + Martel LLP
415.954.4433 / [email protected]
