Obama Judges Strike Again as Court Blocks Trump’s Harvard Funding Freeze

A federal judge Wednesday struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze nearly $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard.

That funding freeze was part of the administration’s effort to combat antisemitism at universities that failed to protect their students and faculty.

But U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs said Wednesday that the halt on grants was both illegal and unconstitutional.

In an 84-page opinion, she held that the administration’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights, and didn’t follow the required procedural steps.

Burroughs, an Obama appointee, permanently banned the administration from enforcing its attempts to freeze Harvard funding and from engaging in future attempts to withhold funding from Harvard “in retaliation for the exercise of its First Amendment rights.”

This wasn’t Burroughs’ first anti-Trump ruling—or her first ruling on Harvard.

She ruled in 2019 to uphold Harvard’s admissions practices, saying, “race conscious admissions programs… have an important place in society.” That ruling was famously struck down by the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which called Harvard’s practices unconstitutional and discriminatory.

In June, Burroughs temporarily blocked an executive proclamation from President Donald Trump that banned foreign students from entering the U.S. on Harvard-sponsored visas. That case now awaits a decision from the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

In April, Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order stopping Department of Energy actions that would effectively cut federal research funding.

Burroughs isn’t the first Obama judge to block Trump funding cuts.

In March, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan blocked Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency from cutting climate grants that the EPA said suffered from lack of oversight and conflicts of interest. That decision was struck down earlier this week by an appeals court, which said Chutkan’s ruling was an “abuse” of “discretion.”

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