#314 3/3 Meeting; 3/4 Alien Land Laws Webinar; 3/12 MSU China Initiative Webinar; Lawsuits+

In This Issue #314

·       2025/03/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·       03/04 Webinar on Fair Housing Rights and Alien Land Laws

·       03/12 MSU Webinar on China Initiative

·       Updates on Lawsuits Against Trump Administration Executive Actions

·       News and Activities for the Communities

2025/03/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, March 3, 2025, starting at 1:55 pm ET.In addition to updates by Judith Teruya, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Joanna YangQing Derman, Program Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC, and Kai Li 李凯, Vice President, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), speakers are:

·       Grace Meng 孟昭文, Chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) (invited)

·       Jessica Chen Weiss 白洁曦, Founding Faculty Director of the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF), SAIS, Johns Hopkins University

·       Michelle Lee, President and Board Chair; Brian Pang, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Partnerships, Stand with Asian Americans

·       Clay Zhu 朱可亮, Co-Founder, Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA)

The virtual monthly meeting is by invitation only. It is closed to the press. If you wish to join, either one time or for future meetings, please contact one of the co-organizers of APA Justice - Steven Pei 白先慎, Vincent Wang 王文奎, and Jeremy Wu 胡善庆 - or send a message to contact@apajustice.org.

*****The February 2025 APA Justice monthly meeting summary is posted at https://bit.ly/43dlMHN.  Past monthly meeting summaries are posted at https://bit.ly/4hyOV4iWe thank the following speakers for their remarks and update reports:

·       Gary Locke 骆家辉, Chair, Committee of 100; former U.S. Ambassador to China; former U/S. Secretary of Commerce; former Governor of the State of Washington

·       Julia Chang Bloch 張之香, Founder and Executive Chair, US-China Education Trust; former U.S. Ambassador

·       Judith Teruya, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC)

·       Joanna YangQing Derman, Program Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC

·       Kai Li 李凯, Vice President, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF)

·       Bethany Li, Executive Director, Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund (AALDEF)

·       Scott Chang, Senior Counsel, National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)

03/04 Webinar on Fair Housing Rights and Alien Land Laws

WHAT: Fair Housing Rights & Alien Land Laws: Challenges and Advocacy for the Asian American CommunityWHEN: March 4, 2025, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ETWHERE: WebinarHOSTS: Committee of 100 and APA Justice Opening Remarks: Cindy Tsai, Interim President, Committee of 100Moderator: John D. Trasviña, Former Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentPanelists:

·       Hope Atuel, CEO/Executive Director, Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA)

·       Scott Chang, Senior Counsel, The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)

Closing Remarks: Jeremy Wu, Founder and Co-Organizer, APA JusticeDESCRIPTION: With new laws limiting property ownership based on nationality, real estate professionals and advocates are stepping up to challenge these discriminatory policies. This webinar will provide critical insights into how these restrictions are reshaping the housing landscape and what we can do to fight back.  What you will learn:

·       Your Rights Under the Fair Housing Act – Understand the legal protections in place to combat discrimination.

·       How These Laws Affect Asian Homebuyers & Real Estate Professionals – Hear real-world impacts from industry experts.

·       Community & Legal Advocacy in Action – Learn how grassroots efforts and legal challenges are pushing back and how you can get involved.

Stay ahead of these evolving legal challenges by exploring Committee of 100’s interactive map, which tracks ongoing land ownership exclusion laws, and APA Justice’s Alien Land Bills webpage, where you will find the latest updates on lawsuits and policy developments.REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/3EOqGke

03/12 MSU Webinar on China Initiative

WHAT: The China InitiativeWHEN: March 12, 2025, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm ETWHERE: WebinarHOST: Asian Pacific American Studies Program, Michigan State UniversityModerator: Kent Weber, Assistant Director of Asian Pacific American Studies, Assistant Professor of History, Michigan State UniversitySpeakers:

·       Lok Siu, Professor of Ethnic Studies and Associate Vice Chancellor of Research, UC Berkeley

·       Jeremy Wu, Founder and Co-Organizer, APA Justice Task Force

DESCRIPTION: A virtual discussion on the life and afterlife of the China Initiative, a Trump Administration program that has used racial profiling and fears of espionage to target Asian American scholars and researchers for investigation. REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/4hVaITO

Updates on Lawsuits Against Trump Administration Executive Actions

As of February 23, 2025, the number of lawsuits against President Donald Trump's executive actions reported by the Just Security Litigation Tracker has grown to 91.Some of the recent developments:

1. National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Trump (1:25-cv-00333)

On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order directing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, with assistance from the Attorney General and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to terminate all DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs, offices, and positions, as well as "equity-related" grants and contracts.On February 3, 2025, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on behalf of four organizations representing different affected groups:

·       American Association of University Professors (AAUP) – representing faculty members

·       National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education – representing diversity officers in academia

·       City of Baltimore – representing a public sector grantee

·       Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – representing a private sector grantee

The lawsuit challenges the executive order as unconstitutional, arguing that it usurps congressional power and violates the First and Fifth Amendments by suppressing speech and discriminating against certain groups.On February 21, 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Adam B. Abelson issued a memorandum opinion and granted a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order. According to a statement from AAUP, the court explicitly cited evidence from AAUP members, finding that:

·       Plaintiffs and their members had suffered “concrete actual injuries” due to the administration’s actions.

·       AAUP members and their institutions would either be forced to restrict their legal activities and expression related to DEI or forgo federal funding altogether.

This ruling marks a significant legal challenge to the administration’s directive, with broader implications for DEI policies across public and private institutions.  Read the AP News report: https://bit.ly/4hOmZtK

2. Injunctions Against Drastic Cuts in Medical Research Funding

According to AP News on February 21, 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley extended her temporary restraining order blocking cuts to National Insitutes of Healh (NIH) research funding.  The order will remain in place until she rules on an injunction, which would provide a more permanent decision.Judge Kelley is presiding over three lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts:

·       Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. National Institutes of Health (1:25-cv-10338)

·       Association of American Medical Colleges v. National Institutes of Health (1:25-cv-10340)

·       Association of American Universities v. Department of Health & Human Services (1:25-cv-10346)

The states and research organizations argue that the cuts are illegal and directly contradict bipartisan congressional action from former President Donald Trump’s first term, which explicitly prohibited such reductions. “It violates bipartisan appropriations law. I should know—I helped author that provision,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) during a Senate budget debate on February 21, 2025.John Bueker, an attorney representing the research groups, argues that the cuts threaten to derail scores of clinical trials of new treatments, with universities saying they will have to “stop or not enroll patients.” “Let’s think about that. A clinical trial is a last hope for a lot of people,” Bueker said.The NIH, the primary funder of biomedical research in the U.S., awarded approximately $35 billion in grants in 2024. These funds are divided into:

·       Direct costs – covering researcher salaries, laboratory supplies, and project-specific expenses.

·       Indirect costs – supporting essential infrastructure such as electricity for lab equipment, hazardous waste disposal, research compliance staff, and janitorial services.

The Trump administration previously dismissed indirect costs as “overhead,” but universities and hospitals argue they are essential for sustaining research. The new policy would cap indirect costs at 15%, a move NIH estimates would save $4 billion annually. Critics argue the impact would be devastating. “It’s like forcing a company to sell a product for $10 when it costs $15 to produce,” said Devon Cimini, a grants administrator at Florida State University. “Quite bluntly, if this cap goes into effect, there wouldn’t be much research anymore.”According to POLITICO on February 12, 2025, red-state universities are also pushing back against the cuts, warning they could be forced to close labs and lay off staff due to sudden funding shortfalls. “This change isn’t a cost savings; it’s a cost transfer,” said Jeffrey Gold, president of the University of Nebraska system, predicting that research capabilities would shrink and states would have to fill the funding gap.

The impact could be severe across multiple institutions:

·       UT Southwestern Medical Center in Texas estimates a potential annual loss of over $100 million.

·       The University of Alabama-Birmingham warned that the cuts could trigger widespread job and economic losses.

·       The University of Kentucky has sent officials to Washington to urge its congressional delegation to prevent tens of millions of dollars in additional costs.

As legal battles and political pressure mount, the future of NIH research funding remains uncertain.

3. Dellinger v. Bessent (1:25-cv-00385)

According to the Washington Post on February 21, 2025, a divided Supreme Court has delayed ruling on the Trump administration’s request to remove the head of an independent government watchdog agency. The justices will wait until at least after a lower-court hearing in the coming week before making a decision.This is the first case to reach the Supreme Court involving President Donald Trump’s broad efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy. The administration had sought to overturn a District Court order that allows Hampton Dellinger to remain as head of the Office of Special Counsel while his lawsuit over the firing proceeds. Established by Congress in the late 1970s, the agency is responsible for protecting whistleblowers within the federal government from retaliation.At the heart of Dellinger’s case is a test of Congress’s authority to limit presidential power and insulate certain agencies from political influence. When lawmakers created the Office of Special Counsel, they sought to ensure its independence by allowing the president to remove the director only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” during the five-year term.The case presents an early test of how the conservative-majority Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices, will respond to challenges against the president’s sweeping efforts to assert greater control over the federal government. In his first weeks back in office, Trump removed more than a dozen inspectors general, replaced top ethics officials, and dismissed the heads of agencies responsible for protecting federal workers and investigating government misconduct. Several of these actions are now being challenged in court.Highlighting the case’s broader implications, a group of law professors specializing in financial regulation has urged the Supreme Court to ensure that any ruling in Dellinger’s case does not weaken the independence of the Federal Reserve. They emphasized that central-bank autonomy is critical to maintaining a strong U.S. economy.

4. Early Wins on Birthright Citizenship

According to the Washington Post on February 24, 2025, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, the son of Chinese immigrants, made his stance clear when asked in December about Donald Trump’s pledge to end birthright citizenship: “I would be the first to sue.”  Three weeks later, he was the first — but he was not alone.The day after Trump signed the executive order, all 22 Democratic-led states, along with Washington, D.C., and the city of San Francisco, filed legal challenges, arguing the order was unconstitutional. The lawsuits were filed in two federal courts—a 32-page complaint in Seattle and a 50-page filing in Boston. Judges in both cases have since issued nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s order.Legal scholars widely agree that the matter is settled law, citing the 1898 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. In that case, the Court affirmed that Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco-born son of Chinese immigrants who had been denied reentry to the U.S., was a citizen under the 14th Amendment.San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said the city’s support for the lawsuit is rooted in its historical connection to the Wong Kim Ark case. “Our office wants to make sure the story is told accurately and litigated fully,” said Chiu, who has been in touch with Wong’s descendants. He added that the family is “horrified at the idea that the 14th Amendment and that case could be summarily ignored by the president of the United States.”At least 10 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration’s executive order 14160 on birthright citizenship, with four injunctions issued so far.On February 19, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit declined the administration’s emergency request to lift a nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s order, rejecting its argument that the preliminary injunction was overly broad. This marks the first time an appellate court has weighed in on the legal challenges to the executive order.The three-judge panel unanimously rejected the request. Judges William C. Canby Jr. and Milan D. Smith Jr. wrote that the administration had not made a “strong showing” that it would succeed on the merits of its appeal.  In a six-page concurring opinion, Judge Danielle Forrest emphasized that setting aside a court order on an emergency basis should be an exception rather than the rule, and that the appeal did not meet that threshold.

In rejecting the emergency plea, the panel upheld a nationwide injunction ordered February 6 by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle, who called Trump’s executive order “blatantly unconstitutional,” while paving the way for the case to be brought before the Supreme Court.

News and Activities for the Communities

1. APA Justice Community Calendar

Upcoming Events:2025/03/02 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/03/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2025/03/04 Fair Housing Rights & Alien Land Laws: Challenges and Advocacy for the Asian American Community2025/03/12 MSU Webinar on China Initiative2025/03/16 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/03/30 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/04/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2025/04/13 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/04/24-26 Committee of 100 Annual Conference and GalaVisit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details. 

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APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem that addresses racial profiling concerns and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American community.  For more information, please refer to the new APA Justice website under development at www.apajusticetaskforce.org.  We value your feedback. Please send your comments to contact@apajustice.org.