Harvard seeks billions in funding restored at a pivotal hearing in its standoff with Trump

BOSTON AP Harvard University appeared in federal court Monday in a pivotal occurrence in its battle with the Trump administration as the storied institution argued the executive illegally cut billion in federal funding President Donald Trump s administration has battered the nation s oldest and wealthiest university with sanctions for months as it presses a series of demands on the Ivy League school which it decries as a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism Harvard has resisted and the lawsuit over the cuts to its research grants represents the primary challenge to the administration in a standoff that is being widely watched across higher teaching and beyond A lawyer for Harvard Steven Lehotsky reported at Monday s hearing the affair is about the leadership trying to control the inner workings of Harvard The funding cuts if not reversed could lead to the loss of research damaged careers and the closing of labs he reported The incident is before U S District Judge Allison Burroughs who is presiding over lawsuits brought by Harvard against the administration s efforts to keep it from hosting international students In that incident she temporarily blocked the administration s efforts At Monday s hearing Harvard is asking her to reverse a series of funding freezes Such a ruling if it stands would revive Harvard s sprawling scientific and therapeutic research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money A lawyer for the governing body Michael Velchik disclosed the governing body has authority to cancel research grants when an institution is out of compliance with the president s directives He explained episodes at Harvard violated Trump s order combating antisemitism Judge questions basis for authorities s findings on antisemitism Burroughs pushed back questioning how the ruling body could make ad-hoc decisions to cancel grants and do so across Harvard without offering evidence that any of the research is antisemitic She also argued the ruling body had provided no documentation no procedure to suss out whether Harvard administrators have taken enough efforts or haven t to combat antisemitism The consequences of that in terms of constitutional law are staggering she mentioned during Monday s hearing I don t think you can justify a contract action based on impermissible suppression of speech Where do I have that wrong Velchik commented the occurrence comes down to the regime s choosing how best to spend billions of dollars in research funding Harvard indicates the authorities is anti-Harvard I reject that Velchik mentioned The cabinet is pro-Jewish students at Harvard The authorities is pro-Jewish faculty at Harvard Harvard s lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April letter from a federal antisemitism task force A second lawsuit over the cuts filed by the American Association of University Professors and its Harvard faculty chapter has been consolidated with the university s The April letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests academics and admissions For example the letter described Harvard to audit the viewpoints of students and faculty and admit more students or hire new professors if the campus was revealed to lack diverse points of view Harvard President Alan Garber has announced the university has made changes to combat antisemitism but reported no leadership should dictate what private universities can teach whom they can admit and hire and which areas of survey and inquiry they can pursue Monday s hearing ended without Burroughs issuing a ruling from the bench A ruling is expected later in writing Trump s pressure campaign has involved a series of sanctions The same day Harvard rejected the regime s demands Trump executives moved to freeze billion in research grants Learning Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants and weeks later the administration began canceling contracts with Harvard As Harvard fought the funding freeze in court individual agencies began sending letters announcing the frozen research grants were being terminated They cited a clause that allows grants to be scrapped if they no longer align with leadership policies Harvard which has the nation s largest endowment at billion has moved to self-fund several of its research but warned it can t absorb the full cost of the federal cuts In court filings the school revealed the ruling body fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer sponsorship veterans and improve national prevention addresses antisemitism The Trump administration denies the cuts were made in retaliation saying the grants were under review even before the April demand letter was sent It argues the establishment has wide discretion to cancel contracts for initiative reasons The research funding is only one front in Harvard s fight with the federal authorities The Trump administration also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students and Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard s tax-exempt status Eventually last month the Trump administration formally issued a finding that the school tolerated antisemitism a step that eventually could jeopardize all of Harvard s federal funding including federal apprentice loans or grants The penalty is typically referred to as a death sentence