CSU System Researchers Sue Trump Administration Over Grant Cancellations

Three professors from the California State University system sued the National Science Foundation on Friday for terminating their grant funds in the wake of a report put out by Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz flagged the studies, which had been preapproved via a merit-based review system, for using keywords like “equity,” “inclusion” and “climate justice.” NSF adopted Cruz’s methodology in 2025 to determine which grants to terminate. Of the CSU studies terminated, one centered on ways to support climate science education, and the other two focused on expanding teacher preparation and participation in STEM fields.

Kunyu Ching, an attorney with Lawyers for Good Government, one of the groups representing the professors, said in a news release that federal grants are supposed to be awarded on the quality of the proposal, not a president or congressmember’s political views.

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“Our clients went through the government’s own rigorous review process, only to have their funding pulled because of the viewpoints their work was presumed to represent,” Ching said. “The First Amendment does not permit the government to punish researchers simply because it disagrees with the words they use to explain their work.”

The suit argues that in addition to disregarding the researchers’ right to free speech, NSF violated the Fifth Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional limits on executive authority. It urges the court to provide injunctive relief and to prevent NSF from canceling other grants based on the researchers’ “political or academic viewpoints.”

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