Arguments set for July in Harvard case against feds over funding freeze

A federal judge in Boston will hear arguments at the end of July in the lawsuit Harvard brought against the Trump administration. The nation’s oldest university is suing to halt the federal government's freeze of more than $2 billion in grants and contracts.

In a packed Boston courtroom on Monday morning, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs agreed to an expedited schedule, slating oral arguments for July 21. The 15-minute status conference was the first time attorneys for Harvard and the federal government convened in court since the suit was filed last Monday.

The school had requested a fast-track to a judgment in the lawsuit. Harvard's attorneys said in court filings the funding cuts threaten vital research in medicine, science and technology, and could lead to the termination of projects. Still, this timeline means the school will be without the frozen funding for at least the next two and a half months.

The Cambridge university argues that the government unlawfully interfered with its First Amendment right to control its own academic direction and flouted procedural requirements when it yanked the funding. The government said it froze the funding because Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act over its alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus.

Attorneys for Harvard and the federal government declined to comment after Monday’s status hearing.

Burroughs, a President Obama appointee, has overseen cases involving Harvard in the past. In 2019, she upheld the school’s race-conscious admissions policy, a ruling which the Supreme Court later reversed.

According to a briefing schedule the judge decided on Monday, the government must turn over all information it relied upon when it canceled the funding by May 19.

Briefs laying out arguments from both sides will be due to the court in early to mid June.

Harvard filed the lawsuit to halt a funding freeze the federal government enacted after the school refused to meet its demands.

Federal agencies sent a letter to Harvard listing broad orders the school would need to comply with to keep that funding, including cutting diversity, equity and inclusion programming and cooperating with law enforcement. The government later expanded its list of conditions, including requiring that Harvard agree to oversight and audits of hiring and admissions and reform its admissions of international students to prevent the acceptance of those “hostile to the American values.”

In a letter to the Harvard community, Harvard President Alan Garber wrote that “the administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government.”

“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he wrote.

Harvard is one of a number of colleges and universities with federal funding that the Trump administration said it is reviewing due to accusations of antisemitism on campus. The feds originally said they were reviewing nearly $9 billion in funding for Harvard.