Newsom Promises Another Lawsuit Against The Trump Administration

As UCLA leaders quietly try to work out an agreement with the Trump Administration to restore cuts in federal funding, California Governor Gavin Newsom has done his best to blow up negotiations by accusing Trump of “extortion” and threatening to sue.

Last Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to restore some of the funding cuts, saying they violated her earlier order blocking cancellations of grants by the National Science Foundation.

To date, the situation remains very much in flux, while other CA politicians,  such as state Senator Scott Wiener, furiously denounce the Trump Administration with UCLA caught in the middle.

The current fracas dates to July 30 when the Justice Department announced that UCLA had violated federal civil rights laws with its “deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “Our investigation into the University of California system has found concerning evidence of systemic anti-Semitism at UCLA that demands severe accountability from the institution. This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand: DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system.”

Referencing  the pro-Hamas encampments that had blocked the Jewish students access to parts of campus, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told then-University of California president Michael Drake that, “Jewish and Israeli students at UCLA were subjected to severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment that created a hostile environment by members of the encampment. Jewish and Israeli students were assaulted, verbally harassed, and physically prevented from accessing parts of the UCLA campus on the basis of their actual or perceived race, religion, and/or national origin.”

The day after the Justice Department announcement, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk told the school community that UCLA was informed by the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation and other government agencies that they would be cutting off more than $200 million in grants over campus anti-Semitism and discrimination in admissions based on illegal uses of racial preferences.

“UCLA received a notice that the federal government, through its control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, is suspending certain research funding to UCLA,” Frenk said.  “This is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do.

“With this decision, hundreds of grants may be lost, adversely affecting the lives and life-changing work of UCLA researchers, faculty and staff. In its notice to us, the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons. This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination.

“We share the goal of eradicating antisemitism across society. Antisemitism has no place on our campus, nor does any form of discrimination,” he continued. “We recognize that we can improve, and I am committed to doing so. Confronting the scourge of antisemitism effectively calls for thoughtfulness, commitment, and sustained effort — and UCLA has taken robust actions to make our campus a safe and welcoming environment for all students.”

Frenk’s statement was somewhat conciliatory and seemed aimed at avoiding escalating the conflict.

Conversely, Gavin Newsom furiously denounced the funding cuts and seemed determined to pick a fight with Donald Trump.

“Freezing critical research funding for UCLA – dollars that were going to study invasive diseases, cure cancer, and build new defense technologies – makes our country less safe,” Newsom said in an August 1  statement. “It is a cruel manipulation to use Jewish students’ real concerns about Antisemitism on campus as an excuse to cut millions of dollars in grants that were being used to make all Americans safer and healthier. This is the action of a president who doesn’t care about students, Californians, or Americans who don’t comply with his MAGA ways.”

The following week on August 6, Frenk announced that the total amount in federal grants cut was actually $584 million–more than double what was originally thought. “If these funds remain suspended it will be devastating for UCLA and the nation,” he said.

In a following statement, James Milliken, the new University of California president, said that the cuts would be devastating but UCLA was open to negotiating with the Trump Administration. “Our immediate goal is to see the $584 million is suspended and at-risk federal funding restored to the university as soon as possible,” Milliken announced.

On August 8, news broke that the Trump Administration had asked UCLA for a one billion dollar payment in return for having the $584 million in spending cuts restored.

Milliken responded: “The University of California just received a document from the Department of Justice and is reviewing it. Earlier this week, we offered to engage in good faith dialogue with the Department to protect the University and its critical research mission. As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians. Americans across this great nation rely on the vital work of UCLA and the UC system for technologies and medical therapies that save lives, grow the U.S. economy, and protect our national security.”

Newsom, on the other hand, went ballistic.

“We’ll sue,” he told reporters.

Who is the we? Who asked for his input? The University of California system is not supposed to be the personal fiefdom of the governor.

Newsom added, President Trump is “trying to silence academic freedom” by “attacking one of the most important public institutions in the United States of America.”

Throughout this war of words, Newsom is behaving like the proverbial bull in a china shop–except, he does not belong in the china shop to begin with since the University of California system is supposed to be largely independent of the governor.

What is also interesting is Newsom’s sudden concern about academic freedom at UCLA. The governor has said nothing about the widely-reported spectacle of the school suspending a business school professor who incited a woke mob by mocking a student who asked if black students could be excused from a final exam because of the trauma over the killing of George Floyd.

University of California at San Diego political science professor Thad Kousser told the California Globe that Newsom stands to benefit politically by attacking Trump.

“Californians and progressives across the country are clearly looking for their leaders to fight President Trump, and, all summer, Gavin Newsom has [shown] a knack for picking fights that are popular in his state and with his base,” Kousser emailed. “Here, he’s siding with a much-loved public university to support scientific research grants against what he sees as an unconstitutional threat, so Newsom clearly has much to gain from fighting the president on this issue.”