Judge rules Trump admin's Harvard funding freeze was unconstitutional

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration acted illegally when it froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University earlier this year amid a battle over the school's response to antisemitism.

Harvard President Alan Garber accused the federal government of attempting to exert “unprecedented and improper control" over the Ivy League school in April, and claimed the freeze impacted programs unrelated to antisemitism.

Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that the Trump administration's freeze was in retaliation for the school's refusal to comply with the administration's demands in a way that violates the First Amendment, CNBC reported.

The order vacates the funding freeze and bans the Trump administration from enforcing the freeze.

“The fact that Defendants’ swift and sudden decision to terminate funding, ostensibly motivated by antisemitism, was made before they learned anything about antisemitism on campus or what was being done in response, leads the Court to conclude that the sudden focus on antisemitism was, at best ... arbitrary and, at worst, pretextual,” Burroughs wrote.

Burroughs said the Trump administration's letter to Harvard in April, which detailed the conditions for the funding, only included one term related to antisemitism and six were related to "ideological and pedagogical concerns." 

The Trump administration has not yet commented on the ruling, but is expected to appeal.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.