BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to reverse cuts of more than $2.6 billion. Research funding For Harvard, it was a big victory for Ivy League schools in their battle against the White House.
US District Judge Alison Burrows has ruled cuts amounting to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of Harvard’s administration’s request for changes to governance and policy.
The government had tied the funding freeze to Harvard’s delay in dealing with anti-Semitism, but the judge said the university’s federally supported research had little to do with discrimination against Jews. “It is difficult to conclude anything else with a review of administrative records (the government) used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for an ideologically motivated attack on the country’s finest universities,” Burrows wrote. The country must fight anti-Semitism, she wrote, but it must also protect the right to free speech.
The ruling overturns a series of fundraising freezes that would later be completely cut as the Trump administration escalated its fight against the country’s wealthiest universities. The administration also sought to prevent schools from being obstructed. Hosting foreign students He threatened to revoke his tax-free status in a widespread clash across higher education.
Federal money recovery will bring back the vastness of Harvard University Research operations And hundreds of projects that keep the cuts in place. However, it is still unclear whether Harvard will actually receive federal money. White House spokesperson Liz Houston said in a statement calling Burrows “the judge of Obama.”
“To a fair observer, it’s clear that Harvard has failed to protect students from harassment and has allowed discrimination that plagues campus for years,” Houston said. “Harvard has no constitutional rights for taxpayers.”
Harvard research scientists said they had seen the incident closely, but feared that their funds would not recover anytime soon.
“Many of us are worried that the federal government will appeal this decision or find other ways to block the provision of research funds despite the judge’s clear statement that dismissal of funds is illegal,” said Rita Hamad, director of the Centre for Research on the Impact of Social Policy on Health.
Beyond courts, officials from the Trump administration and Harvard University have been debating potential agreements that will close the investigation and allow the university to regain access to federal funds. President Donald Trump says he wants to pay Harvard over $500 million, but the deal hasn’t come true even if the administration has. I signed a contract Columbia and Brown.
A federal court ruling on Wednesday said Harvard University administration should be burned, historian Kirsten Weld said he is president of the chapter chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “I hope this decision will make it clear to the Harvard administration that it is unacceptable to negotiate Harvard’s rights in a compromise with the government,” Weld said.
The Harvard University lawsuit accused the Trump administration of campaigning for retaliation against the university after rejecting a string of requests in an April 11 letter from the Federal Anti-Semitism Task Force.
The letter called for drastic changes related to campus protests, academics and hospitalizations. It was intended to address government accusations that the university became a breeding ground for liberalism and tolerated anti-Semite harassment on campus.
Harvard President Alan Gerber vowed to fight anti-Semitism. However, he said the government should not “determine what private universities can teach, who can recognize and hire, or which areas of learning and research can be pursued.”
Trump officials moved to freeze a $2.2 billion research grant on the same day Harvard University rejected the administration’s request. Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would do so. I no longer qualify for the new grantAnd a few weeks later, the government began Cancellation of contract With Harvard.
When Harvard fought the funding freeze in court, individual institutions began sending letters announcing that there was a freeze research grant It’s finished Under a clause that ensures grants are discarded if they no longer match government policies. Harvard has it I moved to a self fund Some of that research warned that it would not be able to absorb the full cost of federal cuts.
The judge’s order will reverse all of Harvard’s federal funding from April 14th, banning the government from future cuts that violate Harvard’s constitutional rights or violate federal law.
Burrows sided with the university’s claim that the cuts amounted to retaliation for breaching First Amendment rights and that the government placed an unconstitutional situation on Harvard’s federal funds.
“It is important to recognize and remember that, as relevant in this case, if we can suppress speeches in the name of today’s Jews, then we can easily reduce Jews (and no one else) speeches when political winds change,” the judge wrote.
Burroughs also agreed to Harvard’s claim that the government failed to comply with measures stipulated by Congress to cut federal funds under Title VI of the federal law prohibiting discrimination in education.
The Trump administration said the grant was under review even before the April request was sent out, denying that the cuts were made in retaliation. The government argues that it has broad discretion to cancel contracts for policy reasons.
“The US policy under the Trump administration is not to fund institutions that cannot adequately address anti-Semitism in their programs,” he said in court documents.
In another lawsuit filed by Harvard, Burrows previously blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent schools from hosting international students.
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Binkley reported that he contributed from Washington DC AP reporter Aamer Madhani.
