Sixth Court Blow in a Row – Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Billion-Dollar Cuts to Harvard

A thunderclap from Boston: U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs (U.S. District Court, Docket No. 25-CV-1421) has declared the Trump administration’s cuts of more than $2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard University unlawful and ordered their immediate reversal. The decision is not only a legal victory for Harvard but also a sharp rebuke aimed at the White House.

A Politically Motivated Attack

Burroughs’ ruling reads like a reckoning: The administration, she wrote, had used accusations of antisemitism as “a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on one of the country’s premier universities.” The connection between Harvard’s handling of antisemitic incidents on campus and the slashed federal funds was “hardly discernible.” Fighting antisemitism is a duty, she wrote, but so is protecting the right to free speech. The ruling overturns all frozen and later canceled funds since April 14, 2025. Hundreds of research projects, from Harvard Medical School to the Kennedy School of Government, are thus saved from collapse. The government, Burroughs held, violated the First Amendment and attached impermissible conditions to the allocation of federal funds.

Harvard Celebrates a Partial Victory

Harvard President Alan Garber called it “an important day for academic freedom.” In a message to the university, he reaffirmed that Harvard would continue to combat antisemitism but that no government should dictate “what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, or which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” Historian Kirsten Weld, president of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called the ruling a signal to the administration that compromises with the government “at the expense of the rights of the Harvard community are unacceptable.”

Government Announces Appeal

But the conflict is far from over. The White House announced an appeal the same day. Spokeswoman Liz Huston called Burroughs “an activist Obama judge” and accused Harvard of tolerating discrimination on campus for years. “Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars,” she said. President Donald Trump himself had previously demanded that Harvard pay at least $500 million to have the funding restored.

Legally, the ruling carries weight: Burroughs made it clear that the government cannot slash research funding at will simply because a university is politically inconvenient. She also pointed out that the government failed to follow the steps prescribed under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which prohibits discrimination in education. While Harvard’s scientists are breathing a sigh of relief, uncertainty remains high. “Many of us fear that the government will find new ways to delay the delivery of research funds,” said Rita Hamad, director of a center for social policy and health. Until the appeal proceedings are concluded, Harvard remains caught in a political tug-of-war – but this ruling gives the university momentum to continue its fight for academic freedom.