Harvard battles Trump over $2.6B in federal funding cuts

Harvard University appeared in federal court Monday in a pivotal affair in its battle with the Trump administration as the storied institution argued the regime illegally cut billion in federal funding President Donald Trump s administration has battered the nation s 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 Harvard has resisted and the lawsuit over the cuts to its research grants represents the primary challenge to the administration in a standoff that is being widely watched across higher teaching and beyond A lawyer for Harvard Steven Lehotsky commented at Monday s hearing the development is about the authorities trying to control the inner workings of Harvard The funding cuts if not reversed could lead to the loss of research damaged careers and the closing of labs he revealed The affair is before U S District Judge Allison Burroughs who is presiding over lawsuits brought by Harvard against the administration s efforts to keep it from hosting international students In that scenario she temporarily blocked the administration s efforts At Monday s hearing Harvard is asking her to reverse a series of funding freezes Such a ruling if it stands would revive Harvard s sprawling scientific and anatomical research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money A lawyer for the establishment Michael Velchik reported the ruling body has authority to cancel research grants when an institution is out of compliance with the president s directives He declared episodes at Harvard violated Trump s order combating antisemitism Judge questions basis for cabinet s findings on antisemitism Burroughs pushed back questioning how the cabinet could make ad-hoc decisions to cancel grants and do so across Harvard without offering evidence that any of the research is antisemitic She also argued the cabinet had provided no documentation no procedure to suss out whether Harvard administrators have taken enough policies or haven t to combat antisemitism The consequences of that in terms of constitutional law are staggering she disclosed during Monday s hearing I don t think you can justify a contract action based on impermissible suppression of speech Where do I have that wrong Velchik declared the circumstance comes down to the governing body s choosing how best to spend billions of dollars in research funding Harvard contends the regime is anti-Harvard I reject that Velchik reported The cabinet is pro-Jewish students at Harvard The establishment is pro-Jewish faculty at Harvard Harvard s lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 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 s The April letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests academics and admissions For example the letter reported Harvard to audit the viewpoints of students and faculty and admit more students or hire new professors if the campus was uncovered to lack diverse points of view Harvard President Alan Garber has commented the university has made changes to combat antisemitism but commented no establishment should dictate what private universities can teach whom they can admit and hire and which areas of investigation and inquiry they can pursue Monday s hearing ended without Burroughs issuing a ruling from the bench A ruling is expected later in writing The same day Harvard rejected the leadership s demands Trump authorities moved to freeze billion in research grants Training Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants and weeks later the administration began canceling contracts with Harvard As Harvard fought the funding freeze in court individual agencies began sending letters announcing the frozen research grants were being terminated They cited a clause that allows grants to be scrapped if they no longer align with regime policies Harvard which has the nation s largest endowment at billion has moved to self-fund selected of its research but warned it can t absorb the full cost of the federal cuts In court filings the school noted the establishment fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer sponsorship veterans and improve national defense addresses antisemitism President Donald Trump speaks Friday in the East Room at the White House in Washington AP Photo Alex Brandon Ryan Enos a governing body professor at Harvard University speaks at a protest against President Donald Trump s up-to-date sanctions against Harvard in front of Science Center Plaza in May AP Photo Leah Willingham File