A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit Thursday from two major educator groups that sued the Trump administration last year over its suspension of roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University.
The three-judge panel ruled that the case was moot. The ruling came in response to a motion from the two faculty unions — the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers — to dismiss their own lawsuit.
AAUP and AFT initially sued the Trump administration in March 2025, the same month the federal government suspended vast sums of the Ivy League’s funding and demanded it make sweeping policy changes. At the time, they accused the Trump administration of an “unlawful and unprecedented effort to overpower” Columbia’s academic autonomy.
Columbia was not a party to the lawsuit.
In June, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the two faculty unions lacked standing to sue. AAUP and AFT appealed the ruling the same day it came down.
Just one month later, however, Columbia struck a formal agreement with the Trump administration to restore the majority of its suspended funding. The university agreed to pay the government $221 million and hand over extensive admissions data. It also agreed to numerous other Trump administration demands, including reviewing its academic programs focused on regional areas, beginning with the Middle East.
AAUP and AFT filed a joint motion along with the Trump administration to dismiss the case in March.
