Judge rules against Trump administration’s $2.6bn funding cut to Harvard

A federal judge in Boston has overturned the Trump administration’s decision to cut at least $2.6 billion in research grant funding for Harvard University.

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The judge, Allison Burroughs, ruled on Wednesday in favour of Harvard that the Trump administration was using antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted assault against the school.

Ms Burroughs, of the US District Court in Boston, identified the US government’s actions as mainly “ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

“We must fight against antisemitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other,” the judge noted.

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“Now it is the job of the courts to similarly step up, to act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution, and to ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of a government committed to its agenda no matter the cost,” she said.

This ruling is a crucial victory and edge for Harvard University in its clash with President Donald Trump’s administration.

While this may not be the final judgment on the matter, as Mr Trump earlier vowed to appeal any judgment against the goal of administration, it is an interim rebuff to protect Ivy League universities and give them leverage in the ongoing settlement talks with the White House.

Harvard’s clash with Trump’s administration

This is the latest development in the dispute between the government and elite US universities, caused by the administration’s effort to roll back race-conscious admission policies and what it views as liberal bias in academia.

In the past months, the administration has targeted Harvard University for refusing many of its proposed changes to admission, curriculum, and hiring practices.

Unlike Columbia and Brown University, which have reached agreements with the administration, Harvard University has been unable to reach a deal.

The university filed a lawsuit against Mr Trump’s administration after officials moved to freeze $2.2 billion in research grants, the same day Harvard rejected the administration’s demand for sweeping changes.

These demands were documented in a letter issued on 11 April.

The Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, had declared that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants. Weeks later, the administration began canceling contracts with Harvard.

In its lawsuit, Harvard accused the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands.

Harvard President Alan Garber vowed to fight antisemitism but said no government “should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

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But US officials denied the cuts were retaliatory, saying the grants had been under review even before the demands were made in April.

However, Ms Burroughs stated that the federally funded research had little connection to antisemitism.

“A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” she wrote in an 84-page ruling.

“We must fight against antisemitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other.

“Harvard is currently, even if belatedly, taking steps it needs to take to combat antisemitism and seems willing to do even more if need be,” she added.