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 circumstance in its battle with the Trump administration as the storied institution argued the cabinet 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 instruction and beyond A lawyer for Harvard Steven Lehotsky mentioned at Monday s hearing the situation 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 affair 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 event 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 physiological research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money A lawyer for the regime Michael Velchik commented the regime has authority to cancel research grants when an institution is out of compliance with the president s directives He mentioned episodes at Harvard violated Trump s order combating antisemitism Judge questions basis for cabinet s findings on antisemitism Burroughs pushed back questioning how the governing 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 cabinet had provided no documentation no procedure to suss out whether Harvard administrators have taken enough procedures or haven t to combat antisemitism The consequences of that in terms of constitutional law are staggering she noted 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 noted the matter comes down to the authorities s choosing how best to spend billions of dollars in research funding Harvard contends the cabinet is anti-Harvard I reject that Velchik mentioned The ruling body is pro-Jewish students at Harvard The cabinet 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 recounted Harvard to audit the viewpoints of students and faculty and admit more students or hire new professors if the campus was unveiled to lack diverse points of view Harvard President Alan Garber has noted the university has made changes to combat antisemitism but commented no executive 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 establishment s demands Trump administrators moved to freeze billion in research grants Training 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 governing body policies Harvard which has the nation s largest endowment at billion has moved to self-fund chosen of its research but warned it can t absorb the full cost of the federal cuts In court filings the school disclosed the authorities fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer aid veterans and improve national shield 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 ruling body has wide discretion to cancel contracts for protocol reasons The research funding is only one front in Harvard s fight with the federal governing body 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 Conclusively 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 participant loans or grants The penalty is typically referred to as a death sentence