US: judge bans Trump from fining University of California for anti-Semitism

Milan, 15 Nov. (LaPresse/AP) – The Trump administration cannot fine the University of California (UCLA) or summarily cut federal funding to the school system on the grounds that it tolerates anti-Semitism or other forms of discrimination. This was ruled by a federal judge in a very harsh judgement. US District Judge Rita Lin of San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the administration from cancelling funding to UCLA on the basis of alleged discrimination without giving notice to the faculty concerned and without conducting a hearing. In her ruling, Lin said that unions and other groups representing UCLA faculty, students and employees provided ‘overwhelming evidence’ that the Trump administration was ‘engaged in a campaign to eliminate “woke”, “leftist” and “socialist” views from our nation’s leading universities’. ‘Agency officials, as well as the president and vice president, have repeatedly and publicly announced a plan of action to initiate civil rights investigations of the most prestigious universities in order to justify cutting federal funding, with the goal of bringing the universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological orientation,’ Lin wrote in the injunction. He added: ‘It is indisputable that this precise plan of action is now being executed at the University of California.’