Trump administration illegally froze billions in Harvard funds, judge rules

Sequoia Carrillo

Cory Turner

Emily Piper-Vallillo

September 03, 2025 / 4:52 pm

A federal judge in Boston handed Harvard University a legal victory on Wednesday. It's the latest in a high-profile legal fight over whether the Trump administration acted illegally when it froze more than $2.2 billion in Harvard research funding in response to allegations of campus antisemitism.

In her ruling, Judge Allison D. Burroughs said the administration's funding freeze was issued without considering any of the steps Harvard had already taken to address the issue.

Burroughs said she found it "difficult to conclude anything other than that [the Trump administration] used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideol

See Full Page