The University of California has been thrust into open confrontation with the Trump administration after faculty, staff, students, and unions filed a sweeping federal lawsuit accusing the government of waging an ideological war on higher education.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in San Francisco, comes just weeks after the administration slapped UCLA with a staggering $1.2 billion fine and froze federal research funding, alleging the university had failed to curb antisemitism and other civil rights violations.

The move marked the first time a public university faced such a sweeping freeze, though elite private institutions including Harvard, Brown, and Columbia have also seen funds withheld under similar accusations.

At the heart of the suit is a charge that the administration is weaponizing civil rights law as leverage to force concessions: demands to hand over admissions and hiring data, end diversity scholarships, ban overnight campus demonstrations, and even cooperate with immigration enforcement. Plaintiffs call these conditions an existential threat to free speech and academic independence.

“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely,” the lawsuit declares.

UC President James Milliken warned September 15 that all ten UC campuses are now under federal investigation. Calling the situation “one of the gravest threats” in the university’s 157-year history, Milliken said more than $17 billion in federal support—including nearly $10 billion tied to Medicare, Medicaid, research, and student aid—hangs in the balance.

The coalition behind the lawsuit, led by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and represented by legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, argues that the administration’s actions are designed not to protect students but to punish universities perceived as bastions of liberal thought.

Stett Holbrook, a UC system spokesman, said the institution itself is not a party to the suit but is part of “numerous legal and advocacy efforts” to restore federal funding. “Cuts to research threaten lifesaving biomedical work, hamper US competitiveness, and jeopardize the health of Americans who depend on UC’s cutting-edge science and innovation,” he said.

The Trump administration has already used Columbia University’s $200 million settlement—paired with the restoration of $400 million in research grants—as a model for reshaping higher education under financial duress. Now, critics warn, the UC case could set the stage for a national clash over the future of public universities.