{"id":81171,"date":"2025-07-21T17:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81171\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T17:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:33:12","slug":"harvard-in-court-over-trumps-cuts-in-research-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81171\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard in court over Trump’s cuts in research funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON (AP) \u2014 Harvard University appeared in federal court Monday in a pivotal case in its battle with the Trump administration<\/a>, as the storied institution argued the government illegally cut $2.6 billion in federal funding.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has battered the nation\u2019s oldest and wealthiest university with sanctions for months as it presses a series of demands on the Ivy League school, which it decries as a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. <\/p>\n

Harvard has resisted, and the lawsuit over the cuts to its research grants represents the primary challenge to the administration in a standoff<\/a> that is being widely watched across higher education and beyond. <\/p>\n

A lawyer for Harvard, Steven Lehotsky, said at Monday\u2019s hearing the case is about the government trying to control the \u201cinner workings\u201d of Harvard. The funding cuts, if not reversed, could lead to the loss of research, damaged careers and the closing of labs, he said.<\/p>\n

The case is before U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, who is presiding over lawsuits brought by Harvard against the administration\u2019s efforts to keep it from hosting international students. In that case, she temporarily blocked<\/a> the administration\u2019s efforts. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Harvard is hoping court rules Trump administration\u2019s $2.6B research cuts were illegal\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports Harvard goes to court today, to try and fight federal fund cuts.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s hearing Harvard is asking her to reverse a series of funding freezes. Such a ruling, if it stands, would revive Harvard\u2019s sprawling scientific and medical research operation<\/a> and hundreds of projects that lost federal money.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for the government, Michael Velchik, said the government has authority to cancel research grants when an institution is out of compliance with the president\u2019s directives. He said episodes at Harvard violated Trump\u2019s order combating antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Judge questions basis for government\u2019s findings on antisemitism<\/p>\n

Burroughs pushed back, questioning how the government could make \u201cad-hoc\u201d decisions to cancel grants and do so across Harvard without offering evidence that any of the research is antisemitic.<\/p>\n

She also argued the government had provided \u201cno documentation, no procedure\u201d to \u201csuss out\u201d whether Harvard administrators \u201chave taken enough steps or haven\u2019t\u201d to combat antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences of that in terms of constitutional law are staggering,\u201d she said during Monday\u2019s hearing. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can justify a contract action based on impermissible suppression of speech. Where do I have that wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

Velchik said the case comes down to the government\u2019s choosing how best to spend billions of dollars in research funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvard claims the government is anti-Harvard. I reject that,\u201d Velchik said. \u201cThe government is pro-Jewish students at Harvard. The government is pro-Jewish faculty at Harvard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard\u2019s lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal antisemitism task force. A second lawsuit over the cuts filed by the American Association of University Professors and its Harvard faculty chapter has been consolidated with the university\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The April letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions. For example, the letter told Harvard to audit the viewpoints of students and faculty and admit more students or hire new professors if the campus was found to lack diverse points of view.<\/p>\n

Harvard President Alan Garber has said the university has made changes<\/a> to combat antisemitism but said no government \u201cshould dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hearing ended without Burroughs issuing a ruling from the bench. A ruling is expected later in writing.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s pressure campaign has involved a series of sanctions <\/p>\n

The same day Harvard rejected the government\u2019s demands, Trump officials moved to freeze $2.2 billion in research grants. Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants<\/a>, and weeks later the administration began canceling contracts<\/a> with Harvard.<\/p>\n

As Harvard fought the funding freeze in court, individual agencies began sending letters announcing the frozen research grants were being terminated<\/a>. They cited a clause that allows grants to be scrapped if they no longer align with government policies.<\/p>\n

Harvard, which has the nation\u2019s largest endowment at $53 billion, has moved to self-fund<\/a> some of its research, but warned it can\u2019t absorb the full cost of the federal cuts.<\/p>\n

In court filings, the school said the government \u201cfails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer, support veterans, and improve national security addresses antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration denies the cuts were made in retaliation, saying the grants were under review even before the April demand letter was sent. It argues the government has wide discretion to cancel contracts for policy reasons.<\/p>\n

The research funding is only one front in Harvard\u2019s fight with the federal government. The Trump administration also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students<\/a>, and Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard\u2019s tax-exempt status<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Finally, last month, the Trump administration formally issued a finding<\/a> that the school tolerated antisemitism \u2014 a step that eventually could jeopardize all of Harvard\u2019s federal funding, including federal student loans or grants. The penalty is typically referred to as a \u201cdeath sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON (AP) \u2014 Harvard University appeared in federal court Monday in a pivotal case in its battle with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[11083,11082,12648,3881,16720,69,407,4934,57,86,210,17845,2736,2739,3740,55632,50,80,159,55631,17051,61,67,370,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-81171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-alan-garber","10":"tag-allison-burroughs","11":"tag-antisemitism","12":"tag-ap-top-news","13":"tag-colleges-and-universities","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-education","16":"tag-education-funding","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-government-policy","19":"tag-health","20":"tag-linda-mcmahon","21":"tag-ma-state-wire","22":"tag-massachusetts","23":"tag-medical-research","24":"tag-michael-velchik","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-science","28":"tag-steven-lehotsky","29":"tag-subsidies","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-united-states-government","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114892426692461397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}