California should take a more bored position for its universities

By Blake Emerson, special for Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

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The Trump administration attack on US higher education has recently been fixed on UCLA, where I teach administrative law and executive power.

Thehe White House has moved to cut off $ 584 million federal funds for the university’s alleged inability to prevent anti -Semitism in its campus. He demanded a sentence of nearly $ 1.2 billion, insisted that the university would not allow “anti -Western” students, publicly deactivate the recognition of the transgender community, and end the care that affirms gender at the university’s hospitals.

This moment to stand up and fight. The regents of the University of California must challenge the Trump administration in the federal court. At the same time, governor Gavin Newpom and the state legislative body must provide the UC system with the financial support it needs to defend the rule of law and academic freedom.

The university has the law on its side. My colleagues and I have prepared Open letter The UC regents who explain why termination is illegal. More than 170 professors in UC legal schools have signed it. The Trump Administration ignores the clear procedural requirements of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Law on the Administrative Procedure of 1946 – such as the requirement to provide for a hearing before an impartial decision, before terminating the funds, to report to Congress and propose material evidence for its charges.

Last week, a The Federal Judge temporarily blocks The Trump Administration from the termination of UCLA funds. However, the Supreme Court has created jurisdiction about it and other lawsuits suggesting that some claims may have to continue in unclear federal court of claimsS

A claim from the regents in the court of claims would help to fill all the gaps created by the vague and developing case law of the Supreme Court. It will also provide legal and symbolic support for the researchers who have so far fought the legal battle of the University alone.

Nowadays, the law is not always sufficient. As the government has not been able to provide a proper process, universities are wisely feared that non-compliance will only lead to more deadly redundancies and perhaps other forms of punishment, such as a loss of non-profit status.

Given this climate of fear, the university and the state will have to partner to challenge the illegal pursuit of the government. Newsom has already summoned The Regents to fight the Trump administration, asking, “How could you accept this fine. Okay for what?”

He is right. However, the university receives over $ 17 billion annually federal funding, including $ 5.7 billion for a research and program program. He would fight to survive, even less maintained his status as a world-class research and educational institution if all these funds were withdrawn.

Newsom and the state can help. Democratic legislators in California have suggest a measure of voting This would provide $ 23 billion in funding for state research subsidies. The proposal would use California’s incomparable economic power to verify the lawlessness of the Trump administration.

Faculty, employees and students know that we will deal with serious weights in a long legal battle with the Trump administration. But we can’t do it ourselves. We need the support of our country and our fellow Californians.

California occupies a unique place in the American mind – over and beyond Hollywood production. America would not be the same without this western border, where the endless and often destructive demand for imperial expansion once reached its limit.

If California succeeds, then the history of the United States can move forward to the broad, sun -lit beaches. If we fail, we can sneak into a night made darker than the eclipse of scientific light.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.