Boston judge orders Trump to give back Harvard funding

By Esther Wickham
The Center Square

A Boston federal judge this week blocked the Trump administration’s $2.2 billion funding freeze against Harvard after the government’s claims of antisemitism.

The U.S. District of Massachusetts Judge Allison Burroughs ruled Wednesday, in an 84-page order, that Harvard has been plagued by antisemitism and should “have done a better job of dealing with the issue.”

But Burroughs, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, added there is “little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism.”

After the Trump administration announced in April that it was freezing almost $2.2 billion in grants due to the university refusing to comply with the federal government’s demands, Harvard sued the administration.

A few months ago, the U.S. Department of Education and Health and Human Services notified the university’s accreditor that Harvard violated federal anti-discrimination laws, which could potentially put the university’s accreditation at risk.

“By allowing antisemitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

Judge Burroughs explained that the Trump administration “failed to provide a reasoned explanation for how or why freezing and terminating funding would further the goal of ending antisemitism,” and that directly conflicts with the First Amendment, which protects free speech.

“All freezes and terminations of funding to Harvard made pursuant to the Freeze Orders and Termination Letters on or after April 14, 2025, are vacated and set aside,” the order said.

The order also claims that the funding freeze had a hidden agenda aside from antisemitism and Title VI violations on the school’s campus.

“In fact, a review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants 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 APA, the First Amendment, and Title VI,” Burroughs wrote.

Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement that the ruling affirms “Harvard’s First Amendment and procedural rights, and validates our arguments in defense of the University’s academic freedom, critical scientific research, and the core principles of American higher education.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech organization, also released a statement on the ruling.

“The worthy goal of combating unlawful anti-Semitic discrimination on campus cannot justify the flatly unlawful and unconstitutional means used by the Trump administration in this attempted hostile takeover, including demanding that Harvard impose ideological litmus tests and restrictive speech codes,” FIRE said.