A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to restore about $2.2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University, despite finding the Ivy League school was “plagued by antisemitism.”
Regardless of antisemitism concerns, Boston-based District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the federal grants awarded to Harvard were unlawfully terminated by President Trump.
Burroughs, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, determined there was “more than sufficient” evidence indicating the Trump administration “impermissibly retaliated against Harvard for refusing to capitulate to the government’s demands.”
The Trump administration “specifically and repeatedly linked the coordinated funding cuts to Harvard’s decision to ‘fight,’” Burroughs wrote in her 84-page ruling.
“That ‘fight’ (Harvard’s decision to speak out and litigate its case in the courts and the marketplace of ideas), however, is indisputably protected by the First Amendment.”
The ruling reverses federal funding freezes imposed on Harvard by Trump earlier this year, in response to allegations the Cambridge, Mass., school was promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and discriminating against Jewish students and faculty by not doing enough to combat antisemitism on campus.
The paused research funding was later outright terminated by Trump as his fight with Harvard escalated.
“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,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement. “Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future.”
Huston noted that the Trump administration will “immediately move to appeal this egregious decision,” and she described Burroughs as an “activist Obama-appointed judge.”
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While Burroughs scolded Harvard for its handling of antisemitism on campus, she argued there was “little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism.”
“It is clear, even based solely on Harvard’s own admissions, that Harvard has been plagued by antisemitism in recent years and could (and should) have done a better job of dealing with the issue,” she wrote.
However, the judge found the Trump administration “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities, and did so in a way that runs afoul of the [Administrative Procedure Act], the First Amendment and Title VI.”
“Further, their actions have jeopardized decades of research and the welfare of all those who could stand to benefit from that research, as well as reflect a disregard for the rights protected by the Constitution and federal statutes,” Burroughs added.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration struck deals with Brown University and Columbia University to restore nearly $1 billion in federal funding to both schools.
Columbia agreed to pay $220 million to restore federal research money that had been axed over claims the Manhattan school allowed antisemitism to fester on campus in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Brown agreed to contribute $50 million to “workforce development organizations” in Rhode Island, end DEI programs and maintain women-only and men-only facilities and sports teams on campus as part of its deal with the Trump administration.
At a White House Cabinet meeting last week, Trump suggested he would accept “nothing less than $500 million” as part of a settlement with Harvard.
“They’ve been very bad,” he told Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
“Don’t negotiate.”
