A federal freeze impacting Harvard University has been ruled unconstitutional.
The Trump administration froze $2.3 billion in research funding to the university due to its failure to comply with numerous demands. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the U.S. Department of Education requested in April that the school decrease the influence of faculty, staff, and students “more committed to activism than scholarship.” The administration had previously stated that schools and universities should no longer factor “racial preferences” in admissions, financial aid, or hiring to align with the dismantling of DEIA initiatives, offices, and programs within the federal government.
The Education Department additionally told Harvard University that an external panel was required to audit faculty, staff, and students to ensure “viewpoint diversity,” claiming it “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.” White House Spokesperson Harrison Fields also said Trump is “working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked antisemitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence.”
Harvard University did not comply with the orders. Still, it did address concerns about antisemitic and anti-Muslim bias and committed to making improvements, Bloomberg reports. The university countered the administration’s letter at the time by filing a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Boston, MA, stating it was unconstitutional, citing the First Amendment, and that the administration showed no regard for vital medical research, according to a separate story reported by AFROTECH™.
“Moments ago, we filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government’s authority,” Harvard University President Alan Garber said. “…Before taking punitive action, the law requires that the federal government engage with us about the ways we are fighting and will continue to fight antisemitism. Instead, the government’s April 11 demands seek to control whom we hire and what we teach.”
In a September verdict, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs confirmed the freeze issued by the Trump administration was unconstitutional, stating 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,” according to CNN.
“Their actions have jeopardized decades of research and the welfare of all those who could stand to benefit from that research, as well as reflect a disregard for the rights protected by the Constitution and federal statutes,” she added.
In response to Burroughs’ verdict, Garber stated:
“Even as we acknowledge the important principles affirmed in today’s ruling, we will continue to assess the implications of the opinion, monitor further legal developments, and be mindful of the changing landscape in which we seek to fulfill our mission.”
The White House stated it plans to appeal the ruling, per CNN.
