The AAUP has joined with coplaintiffs in filing multiple lawsuits to stop the Trump administration’s illegal actions affecting higher education. AAUP members have bravely stepped forward to share their stories, contributing crucial evidence in these legal battles. Never before has an administration attacked the higher education com munity in so many ways, whether by cutting federal funding for research or seeking to deport students and faculty members for their speech. With support from the AAUP Foundation, and through partnership with allies including the AFT, the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and the Knight First Amendment Institute, the AAUP continues this important legal work and may file additional suits. An overview of the cases in which the AAUP is a plaintiff, with the most recent developments as of this writing, follows, and additional updates will be posted at https://www.aaup.org/litigation.
In a landmark decision issued on September 30, a federal court ruled that the Trump administration, as part of a broad assault on our civil rights, misused government power to target noncitizen pro-Palestinian students for arrest and deportation for their political speech in violation of the First Amendment. The AAUP, the Middle East Studies Association, and several AAUP chapters brought the suit with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The judge relied on testimony of AAUP members as evidence that the arrests and enforcement policy chilled their speech. The court explained that President Trump’s mistaken belief that the government can seek retribution for speech that he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech. The court also held that noncitizens present in the United States have the same free speech rights as citizens. Next, the court will hold a hearing on how to remedy the violations.
On September 3, in another significant victory, a federal district judge agreed with the AAUP, the Harvard AAUP chapter, the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the Harvard administration that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Administrative Procedures Act by demanding that Harvard restrict speech and restructure core operations or face the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding for the university and its affiliated hospital. Law firms Selendy Gay PLLC and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC filed suit pro bono on behalf of the AAUP and its Harvard chapter in March, and Harvard filed suit soon after. The court consolidated the cases, and the decision was issued jointly for both Harvard and the AAUP and its chapter. The decision stated, “Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities. . . . Their actions have jeopardized decades of research and the welfare of all those who could stand to benefit from that research, as well as reflect a disregard for the rights protected by the Constitution and federal statutes.” The decision lifted the freeze orders and termination letters that cut federal research funding to Harvard. It also restricted any further denials of federal funding to Harvard in retaliation for exercising First Amendment rights or on grounds of purported discrimination.
The AAUP and a broad coalition of labor unions filed a lawsuit on September 16 seeking to stop the Trump administration from continuing to use threats of federal funding cuts to coerce the University of California into suppressing free speech and academic freedom. Democracy Forward and Altshuler Berzon LLP are representing the wall-to-wall coalition of labor unions in the matter. The complaint describes how the government’s actions against the UC “follow a Trump administration playbook that has already succeeded in undermining free speech and academic freedom” domestically—and mirror one employed by autocratic movements globally.
In the AAUP’s challenge to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, the US Supreme Court decided in July to lift the preliminary injunction the AAUP had initially won to stop layoffs, allowing the layoffs to continue. Democracy Forward filed the complaint in March on behalf of the AAUP, the AFT, and several other unions and school districts. The AAUP continues to fight this case in the lower courts.
In the AAUP’s challenge to the Trump administration’s anti-diversity executive orders, oral arguments were held in September before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The AAUP and others filed suit in February seeking to prevent the administration from using federal grants and contracts as leverage to force colleges and universities to end all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, whether federally funded or not, and from terminating any “equity-related” federal grants or contracts. The AAUP initially won a preliminary injunction, though that was stayed by the appellate court that is considering the government’s appeal.
In June, the national AAUP, along with the American Association of Physics Teachers, the UAW, and other plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit against the National Science Foundation for its termination—because of alleged changes in agency priorities—of approximately 1,600 previously awarded grants, cooperative agreements, and other financial assistance worth more than $1 billion. The plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. Following a hearing in August, on September 10 the district court judge denied the preliminary injunction.
The AAUP and others sued the Trump administration for unlawfully cutting off $400 million in federal funding for crucial public health research in an attempt to force Columbia University to surrender its academic independence, filing a motion for a preliminary injunction. The district court denied the injunction and dismissed the case. The AAUP filed an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. However, on July 23, Columbia entered a settlement agreement with the administration. As the Knight First Amendment Institute aptly described it, “The settlement comes at a very steep price to Columbia’s autonomy and to the constitutional freedoms of Columbia’s faculty, staff, and students.”