A federal judge has overturned the Trump administration’s decision to block $2.2 billion in research grants to Harvard University, ruling the move was illegal and politically motivated.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs sided with Harvard on Wednesday, finding that the freeze was retaliation for the Ivy League school’s refusal to accept government demands that she said violated the First Amendment.
The ruling not only voids the April 14 funding freeze but also bars anyone in the Trump administration from trying to enforce it again.
A Clash Over Campus Policies
The freeze came just hours after Harvard rejected a list of federal demands — including ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and screening international students for ideological biases, such as antisemitism.
Burroughs noted that the administration’s sudden focus on antisemitism appeared “arbitrary” and “at worst, pretextual,” pointing out that only one of the ten conditions in the government’s letter actually addressed antisemitism. The rest targeted who could teach, who could be admitted, and what could be taught at Harvard.
Research Projects Left in Limbo
The freeze halted work on dozens of major research projects — from tuberculosis studies and NASA astronaut radiation exposure to Lou Gehrig’s disease research and a Veterans Administration tool to help ER doctors decide whether suicidal veterans should be hospitalized.
“There is no link between the affected projects and antisemitism,” Burroughs wrote, stressing that even a worthy cause like combating antisemitism cannot justify abruptly cutting decades of federal research funding without a clear, evidence-based reason.
Harvard and Federal Responses
At the time of the freeze, Harvard President Alan Garber told the university community:
“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 has not yet commented on the ruling.
Madi Biedermann, spokesperson for the U.S. Education Department, criticized the decision, noting Burroughs was appointed by President Obama and had previously ruled in Harvard’s favor in its race-conscious admissions case — a decision later overturned by the Supreme Court.
“Cleaning up our nation’s universities will be a long road, but worth it,” Biedermann said.
