UCLA's frozen federal grants to be restored by Trump administration, judge says

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore frozen research grants to UCLA on Monday.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said that "all grant terminations" made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation and Department of Health and Human Services, must be restored.

Her preliminary injunction also said that grants that were terminated by a form notice without a "grant-specific explanation for the termination" are vacated.

In a statement to CBS Los Angeles, NIH said they do not comment on ongoing litigation. CBS Los Angeles has also reached out to UCLA and the White House for a comment and is waiting for a response. 

The total amount of grants that will be restored is unclear.

Lin's ruling comes more than a month after she ordered the Trump administration to also restore a portion of the research grants it had suspended from UCLA, after the Department of Justice alleged civil rights violations.

In July, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division claimed UCLA had violated the "Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." It also said the university failed to "adequately" respond to complaints from Jewish and Israeli students over alleged "offensive harassment and abuse" they faced from Oct. 7, 2023, to the present.

Following the allegations by the DOJ, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said the university was notified it would be losing funding as a consequence, which was estimated to be about $584 million.

Frenk has described the federal suspicion as "not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants" but a "loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do."

Aside from the loss of grants, the Trump administration is also seeking a $1 billion settlement from the university, according to the White House. Details of that settlement were not immediately made available. 

This is a developing story and will be updated if statements are received from UCLA and the White House.