A US federal court has overturned billions in funding cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration to Harvard University.
Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the government violated the Ivy League college’s free speech rights when it revoked around $2bn (£1.5bn) in research grants.
The ruling is a major legal victory for Harvard, but the White House has vowed to appeal. When it froze funding in April, the Trump administration accused the college of antisemitism, “radical left” ideologies and racial bias.
Three other Ivy League universities, Columbia, Penn and Brown, struck deals with Trump to preserve funding that was at risk due to similar claims by the administration, rather than go to court.
Boston-based Judge Burroughs wrote in Wednesday’s ruling: “The Court vacates and sets aside the Freeze Orders and Termination Letters as violative of the First Amendment.”
She blocked the administration from stopping any more federal funding to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based college and barred the government from withholding payment on existing grants.
The White House said they would immediately challenge the “egregious decision” and called the judge an “activist” who was appointed by former President Barack Obama and was never going to rule in their favour.
“Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future,” assistant press secretary Liz Huston said.
Alan Garber, president of the university, said in a statement on their website that “the ruling affirms Harvard’s First Amendment and procedural rights”.
“We will continue to assess the implications of the opinion, monitor further legal developments, and be mindful of the changing landscape in which we seek to fulfill our mission,” he added.
Judge Burroughs wrote in her 84-page decision that Harvard should have done more to deal with antisemitism, which she said had “plagued” the institution in recent years.
“Harvard was wrong to tolerate hateful behavior for as long as it did,” wrote the judge.
But she said that fighting antisemitism was not the Trump administration’s “true aim” in penalising the nation’s oldest and richest university.
She suggested the government had “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities”.
Judge Burroughs has previously blocked Trump’s efforts to prevent Harvard from hosting international students.
The university sued the Trump administration over the funding freeze in April, while also pledging to fight antisemitism.
Harvard’s president 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”.
Trump has also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and take control of the university’s patents stemming from federally funded research.
The government has been discussing with Harvard a potential deal to unfreeze federal funding. Trump has said he wants the university to pay no less than $500m.
BBC: Judge overturns Trump administration funding cuts to Harvard
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