The Trump administration’s freeze of more than $2 billion in grant funds for Harvard University over allegations of antisemitism on campus was ruled illegal by a federal judge on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs’ decision moves to restore the crucial research funding and sided with Harvard’s arguments that the administration had violated First Amendment protections under the Constitution.
“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,” Burroughs wrote in the 84-page ruling. “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.”
Burroughs continued, “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.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone on Wednesday, White House spokesperson Liz Huston said that to “any fair-minded observer, it is clear that Harvard University failed to protect their students from harassment and allowed discrimination to plague their campus for years,” adding, “Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future.” Huston said that the administration will move to appeal the judge’s decision.
Harvard did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Under the pretense of combating antisemitism amid the ongoing war in Gaza, the Trump administration has attempted to force Harvard — and other top American universities — to surrender their academic independence and capitulate to government oversight of their curriculums, staffing decisions, and student body. So far, Columbia University and Brown University have reached deals with the federal government to restore funding.
Although Harvard previously agreed to the definition of antisemitism promoted largely by the right, it pushed back against the administration’s attempts to seize greater control by demanding the university allow the government to audit who it hires, fires, and admits into the school or risk a freeze of more than $2 billion in grants.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
In April, Harvard filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration and accused it of violating the First Amendment. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement at the time.
Burroughs’ ruling in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts sided with Harvard’s argument that the funding cuts amounted to illegal retaliation to the university’s rejection of the government’s demands and prohibited the Trump administration from enforcing similar freezes on Harvard’s funding.
In the ruling, Burroughs cautioned, “As pertains to this case, it is important to recognize and remember that if speech can be curtailed in the name of the Jewish people today, then just as easily the speech of the Jews (and anyone else) can be curtailed when the political winds change direction.”
From Rolling Stone US
