A federal judge in Boston ruled Harvard on Wednesday.
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The judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration illegally freezes more than $2 billion in research funds at Harvard University, involving how officials deal with so-called anti-Semitism on campus.
“We must fight anti-Semitism, but we also need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and should not sacrifice any goal on other goals, nor do we need to sacrifice anything on other goals,” she added. Harvard is “currently, even if it is belatedly” taking anti-Semitism action.
The federal government froze $2.2 billion in funding when Ivy League universities refused to implement far-reaching changes demands, Harvard sued the Trump administration in April, which would overhaul enrollment, governance, recruitment, and more.
Obama-appointed Burroughs expressed doubts about the Trump administration’s claims at a hearing in July, telling administration lawyers that they failed to support Harvard’s failure to properly address anti-Semitism. She also ruled in another case in June that the government temporarily blocked the government from halting Harvard’s ability to host international students.
“Harvard is wrong in acts of hatred,” Burroughs wrote Wednesday, but “the record … does not reflect combat anti-Semitism” was the defendant’s “real goal” and such efforts “cannot be achieved after the First Amendment.”
The ruling is as rumors about Harvard University and the federal government continue to spin. The Trump administration has demanded a $500 million settlement that will force other changes to admission and discipline policies, similar to its Ivy League peers Columbia and Brown.
“The ruling confirms Harvard’s First Amendment and Procedural Rights and validates our arguments to defend the university’s academic freedom, critical scientific research and core principles of higher education in the United States,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement Wednesday.
Wednesday’s legal ruling also prompted celebrations for free speech groups and others.
“What did the federal court respond today [the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression] It has been said: The Trump administration trampled on Harvard’s First Amendment rights and violated the Civil Rights Act when it received billions of dollars in federal grants and contracts for alleged violations of Chapter 6’s title,” Fire wrote in a statement.
“This is a huge victory for all higher education, science and liberal and critical thinking in this country,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors. “Trump has tried time and time again to limit speech and weaken life in university research. As today’s victory shows, Trump’s war on higher education is unconstitutional. We will continue to stand up against these attempts to destroy our universities, fearful students and faculty, and punish hospitality and scientists for not succumbing to authoritarianism.”
The American Education Council praised Blaus’s ruling.
“We are pleased to see the federal court confirm that what we have always known is true: the Trump administration ignores the law in its pursuit of politically motivated attacks on Harvard and other institutions,” said Peter McDonough, general counsel of the ace. “We urge the administration to abandon these harmful attacks and instead work to restore decades of partnerships that have made colleges and universities an innovation engine in the United States.”
Judging from the Ministry of Education’s response to the ruling, this seems unlikely.
“In the unsurprising incident, the same Obama-appointed judge ruled to support Harvard’s racially illegal admission practice (eventually overturned by the Supreme Court) and that was only an effort against the Trump administration’s efforts to declare rampant discrimination on campus,” Spokesers Madi Biedmann wrote in an email. “Cleaning universities in our country will be a long road, but it’s worth it.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon added in an article on X: “The Trump administration is entirely committed to appealing this wrong decision and will ensure new taxpayer funds are invested in any university that firmly refuses to hold civil rights for all students.”
