Judge orders US to restore $2.2B in Harvard grants

The U.S. government’s termination of nearly $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard University violated the First Amendment and federal law, a judge for the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts ruled Sept. 3. 

Judge Allison Burroughs said the Trump administration “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” according to the 84-page ruling. 

In late March, the government launched a review of nearly $9 billion in grants and contracts to the Cambridge, Mass.-based university. The Trump administration said the move was in response to Harvard’s “failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination.” 

The administration then outlined federal funding conditions, threatening to freeze billions of dollars in grants and contracts. 

Harvard President Alan Garber, MD, PhD, said the administration’s demands focused on regulating “intellectual conditions” rather than combating antisemitism. After the university rejected the proposal, the government froze and eventually ended $2.2 billion in multiyear grants and a $60 million contract with Harvard.

Stop-work orders affected research on tuberculosis, early detection of ALS and treatments for long-term radiation exposure. 

In April, Harvard filed a lawsuit against a slew of federal agencies and leaders — including HHS, NIH, NASA, the Justice Department, the Energy Department, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Education Secretary Linda McMahon — regarding the funding cuts.  

The American Association of University Professors, the Harvard Graduate Students Union and others filed a similar lawsuit. 

In May, the Trump administration barred the university from seeking additional federal research grants and stripped millions of dollars more in ongoing projects. 

In the ruling, Ms. Burroughs said although Harvard should have done more to address antisemitism, “there is, in reality, little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism.”

Ms. Burroughs said the administration’s freeze orders and termination letters violated the First Amendment; the Administrative Procedure Act, which grants federal courts oversight over agency actions; and Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. 

The administration plans to appeal the decision, according to NBC News and Bloomberg.

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