A federal judge on Monday upheld the rule of law and the separation of powers amidst a lawsuit by the American Association of University Professors which sought to undermine the executive branch.
The AAUP, along with the American Federation of Teachers, sued the Trump administration for canceling federal grants to Columbia University over antisemitism concerns. The teachers’ unions were represented by a left-wing group called “Protect Democracy.”
However, the faculty unions should go back to school and learn about the executive branch and the separation of powers, as Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil gave them a lesson on “our democracy.”
The plaintiffs, who are not directly harmed at all by the decision, asked for a preliminary injunction against the funding cuts to Columbia.
Of course no university has a legal right to federal taxpayer dollars. But furthermore, as Judge Vyskocil explained, the unions cannot prove they are directly harmed.
President Trump nominated her to the Southern District of New York federal court in his first term with the backing of Democratic New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Judge Vyskocil wrote:
With no apparent sense of irony, lawyers for an organization called ‘Protect Democracy’ insist that a district court judge should order the Executive Branch immediately to restore the flow of taxpayer dollars to an elite university, which funding Defendants represent is inconsistent with the priorities of the duly elected President of the United States. Our democracy cannot very well function if individual judges issue extraordinary relief to every plaintiff who clamors to object to executive action.
She pointed out the plaintiffs have not received the grants themselves from the federal government. Columbia, she notes, can sue, but they are not a plaintiff in this lawsuit.
The judge also ripped into the AAUP and the AFT for their “sensational rhetoric about the ‘transcendent value’ of academic freedom, and ‘the Trump administration’s’ effort to ‘control the thought’ of ‘faculty and students’ (though Plaintiffs do not purport to represent any students) by placing a ‘gun to the head’ of non-party Columbia University.”
The judge furthermore noted Columbia and the Trump administration are in talks to reach an agreement on antisemitism on campus. Yet, the AAUP is “inserting themselves into a quarrel.”
Since taking office, President Trump has sought to restore commonsense to the distribution of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. He also is doing what he sees as the best way to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment on campus.
While opponents may argue that professors should not have grants taken away for unrelated campus activity, it is proper for the federal government to use the levers of money to effect change.
Thankfully, this judge stood up for “our democracy” against the attacks by the faculty unions to undermine Trump and his authority through the executive branch to pressure Columbia to make changes to protect all students.
