A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Monday to restore over $500 million in federal grants to the University of California system. 

The Justice Department in July halted the distribution of federal grants worth $584 million due to the government’s findings that the academic institution had failed to take sufficient action to protect Jewish students on campus from antisemitic harassment. 

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U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin in San Francisco ruled this week that the Trump administration likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires specific procedures and explanations for federal funding cuts, when it notified the university about the funding cuts through form letters. She granted a preliminary injunction on the matter, meaning the government will be required to restore hundreds of millions in federal funding to the University of California system. 

Lin, a judge in the Northern District Court of California, also wrote in her ruling that the government must restore millions of dollars in Department of War and Department of Transportation grants to UC schools.

The judicial decision holds the biggest impact on the University of California, Los Angeles, where the government froze $500 million in UCLA medical research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The funds were among the $584 million first frozen in July, initiating the court battle between the school and the Trump administration. 

Lin has made several rulings on the matter in the months since. 

In August, she restored $81 million in the form of around 300 federal grants from the National Science Foundation. 

DOJ FINDS UCLA VIOLATED JEWISH STUDENTS’ CIVIL RIGHTS

In June, Lin issued a preliminary injunction temporarily restoring federal grants in a separate legal case over UC cuts. The case, filed by UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco researchers, was later expanded by the plaintiffs to include recovery of the frozen UCLA grants. In her August decision ordering the Trump administration to release $81 million in funding to UCLA, Lin ruled that the White House had violated the June injunction she issued barring it from terminating additional grants. 

While Monday’s decision marks a setback for the Trump administration, the White House remains involved in an effort to push the UC system to make sweeping changes regarding how it approaches antisemitism and other civil rights issues. The Trump administration is seeking a $1.2 billion settlement from the university, which is viewed as one of the most prestigious systems in the world.