A judge on Aug. 12 ruled that the federal government must restore portions of the funding it had suspended from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
In a 12-page order, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin of the Northern District of California stated that the National Science Foundation (NSF) had violated a preliminary injunction requiring the agency to restore research grants previously awarded to UCLA.
It is unclear how much of the suspended funding will be restored under the order. Lin noted in her ruling that UCLA research projects lost more than $324 million in grant funding this year.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in June by lawyers representing UCLA researchers, alleging that the NSF had unlawfully terminated the grants by usurping Congress’s spending authority. Lin granted a preliminary injunction on June 23, ordering NSF to reinstate the grants….