A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from withholding research funding from the University of California system amid civil‑rights investigations. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin criticized what she described as a “playbook” of targeting universities for ideological reasons, and barred the government from freezing UC grants or conditioning awards in ways that would violate speech rights. The ruling came in litigation brought by faculty groups and unions and could shape how civil‑rights inquiries are used against research institutions, while the Department of Justice declined to comment on the case.