Trump's $2 Billion Harvard University Funding Freeze Ruled Illegal!

According to media reports, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston ruled on Wednesday (September 3) that the Trump administration's freeze of over $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University was illegal and that the prestigious Ivy League school's research funding cannot be cut again.

The judge stated that the Trump administration's suspension of a series of Harvard research grants in April failed to follow due process and violated Harvard's right to free speech. The ruling marks a major legal victory for Harvard.

By contrast, tensions between the federal government and the Ivy League school continued to escalate after Harvard refused to meet a series of demands from the Trump administration's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism in April. The Trump administration then cut over $2 billion in federal funding, citing Harvard's failure to adequately address anti-Semitism on campus.

For months, the Trump administration and Harvard University have been negotiating to restore research funding and attempt to end the multifaceted conflict between the White House and one of America's oldest and wealthiest universities.

At the same time, Harvard has filed a lawsuit, alleging that the Trump administration is retaliating against it and violating its free speech rights. On July 21, a key hearing in Harvard University's lawsuit against the Trump administration for illegally freezing federal funds took place in the U.S. District Court in Boston.

Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, stated that the Republican president was right to combat anti-Semitism and that Harvard was "wrong to tolerate hateful behavior for so long." However, she emphasized that combating anti-Semitism was not the administration's true purpose and that officials' desire to pressure Harvard into acquiescing to their demands violated the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Burroughs further stated that the court's job is to uphold academic freedom and "ensure that important research is not unduly impacted by arbitrary and procedurally flawed funding terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of an administration bent on pursuing its own agenda at all costs."

In her latest ruling, she prohibited the government from terminating or freezing any additional federal funding for Harvard and from continuing to withhold existing grants or denying new funding to Harvard in the future.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston issued a statement the same day in response, stating that Harvard University had failed to protect students from harassment and allowed discrimination to flourish on campus for years. Harvard University has no constitutional right to taxpayer funds and remains ineligible for future funding. Huston stated that the US government will appeal the ruling.

"We will immediately appeal this egregious decision, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in our efforts to hold Harvard accountable," she said.

A week earlier, at a Cabinet meeting on August 26, Trump again called on Harvard University to settle with the government and pay "no less than $500 million," describing Harvard as "terrible." Three other Ivy League schools have reached agreements with the Trump administration, including Columbia University, which agreed in July to pay $220 million to restore federal research funding.