Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—University of California researchers, represented by renowned constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, sue Trump administration over grant terminations, (Jun 6, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Among allegations that the administration’s actions violate various constitutional principles and the APA, the plaintiffs allege that it violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and statutes requiring agencies to fulfill congressionally defined missions.

In a new class action lawsuit filed earlier this week in the Northern District of California, University of California researchers, represented by Erwin Chemerinsky and local counsel, challenge the termination or threatened termination or suspension of previously approved grants from various federal agencies pursuant to executive orders issued by President Trump.

They seek a declaration that those actions are unconstitutional and otherwise unlawful because they violate the “bedrock constitutional principle of separation of powers;” the First Amendment guarantee of free speech; the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process; the Impoundment Control Act of 1974; “statutes requiring agencies to fulfill congressionally defined missions;” and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

Bypassed Congress. The researchers allege that the terminations “bypassed Congress, ignored or contradicted the purposes for which Congress created the granting agencies and appropriated funds, and dispensed with the regular procedures and due process afforded grantees under the APA, in implementing the Trump Administration’s political ‘cost-cutting’ agenda and ideological purity campaign.”

In the complaint, they explain:

“Abrupt, wholesale, and unilateral termination of these grants has violated the Constitution’s core principle of separation of powers and its guarantees of freedom of speech and due process; flouted the Impoundment Control Act limits on the Executive’s ability to withhold or redirect congressionally appropriated money; ignored statutory requirements that agencies fulfill their substantive missions and fund congressionally specified activities; contravened agency-specific grant-making regulations that cannot by law be revised on an abrupt, unexplained, chaotic basis; and violated the APA through this arbitrary, capricious, and ultra vires conduct.”

They also seek injunctive relief, including that which restores the lost funding, enjoins further unlawful grant terminations and suspensions, and provides necessary grant extensions. They allege that they, as well as the class they seek to represent “are suffering, or will imminently suffer, concrete harm to their research, their careers, and their professional standing.”

Class members. The proposed class includes:

“All University of California researchers, including faculty, staff, academic appointees, and employees across the University of California system (“UC researchers”) whose research grants have been or will be terminated, denied, suspended, or reduced by any of the Defendants pursuant to Executive Orders 14151, 14154, 14158, 14168, 14173, 14217, 14238, and/or 14222, and/or other directives of the Trump Administration or DOGE, from and after January 20, 2025.”

The case is No. 3:25-cv-04737.

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