March 25, 2025. Two faculty unions, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP and co-counsel Protect Democracy, have sued the Trump Administration for immediately cutting off $400 million in federal grants and other funds to Columbia University and conditioning Columbia’s receipt of any future federal funding on agreement to a series of far-reaching programmatic and institutional changes. The lawsuit, filed March 25, 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the federal government’s sudden withdrawal of funds from Columbia is unlawful because the government failed to adhere to the procedural and substantive requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit further alleges that the government’s actions seek to unconstitutionally coerce Columbia into dismantling academic freedom and free speech on campus, in violation of the First Amendment rights of the AAUP, the AFT, and their members. The lawsuit seeks to require the federal government to restore funding to Columbia, including for critical scientific and medical research, and to prohibit the government from attempting to penalize Columbia or its faculty for the constitutionally protected speech of Columbia’s faculty and students.
A press release regarding the lawsuit is available here.
A copy of the complaint is available here.