Judge dismisses Columbia University faculty lawsuit over Trump funding cuts and demands
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Columbia was the first major US university targeted in US President Donald Trump’s effort to conform higher education to his policies.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK - A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Trump administration by two labour unions for Columbia University faculty that challenged funding cuts and demands to overhaul student discipline and boost oversight for a Middle Eastern studies department.
US District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in Manhattan said the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers lacked legal standing to sue, with Columbia itself “conspicuously absent” from the case.
“Our democracy cannot very well function if individual judges issue extraordinary relief to every plaintiff who clamours to object to executive action,” the judge wrote.
“If any funds have been wrongfully withheld, such funds may be recovered at the end of a successful lawsuit by the appropriate plaintiff in an appropriate forum.
“It is not the role of a district court judge to direct the policies of the executive branch first and ask questions later.”
Both plaintiffs plan to appeal.
“The Trump administration’s threats and coercion at Columbia University are part of an authoritarian agenda that extends far beyond Columbia,” Mr Todd Wolfson, president of the professors’ union, said in a statement. “We will continue to fight back.”
Judge Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, ruled 12 days after the Department of Education threatened to revoke Columbia’s accreditation over the university’s alleged failure to protect Jewish students, including from pro-Palestinian protests.
Columbia was the first major US university targeted in President Donald Trump’s effort to have higher education conform to his policies. It has acceded to some White House demands, including by boosting security and announcing a review of its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department.
Other schools, including Harvard University, have fought Mr Trump in court.
The labour unions’ lawsuit originally targeted US$400 million (S$512 million) of Columbia funding cuts and later sought an injunction to prevent the Trump administration from interfering with over US$5 billion of grants and contracts.
Judge Vyskocil said that to the extent the unions “feel chilled” by recent changes at Columbia, they have not shown that the changes were “merely the ‘predictable’ response” to White House demands. REUTERS
