MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A federal judge in Boston handed Harvard University a big win on Wednesday.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The judge says the Trump administration unlawfully froze more than $2 billion in research funding to the school. The administration put the freeze in place in what it says was a response to allegations of antisemitism on campus, which prompted Harvard to sue.
MARTIN: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner has been looking over the judge's 84-page ruling and is with us now to tell us more about it. Cory, good morning.
CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So what can you tell us about how the funding freeze, according to the judge, ran afoul of the law?
TURNER: Yeah, Judge Allison Burroughs offered really not one argument, but several. For starters, she pointed out that the research being defunded at Harvard included studies of Alzheimer's, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, heart disease, autism. There's even a study to help emergency room doctors better serve suicidal veterans, none of which, the judge said, had any clear connection to antisemitism on campus.
Burroughs also said the freeze violated Harvard's First Amendment rights. And that's because at the same time the Trump administration claimed it was doing this to fight antisemitism, President Trump was excoriating Harvard more broadly on Truth Social for being a, quote, "liberal mess" and for fighting back against the administration. So the judge said she found it, quote, "difficult to conclude anything other than that the administration used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault."
MARTIN: You know, Cory, it's interesting. Harvard has said that antisemitism had become a problem on campus. Does the judge speak to that?
TURNER: Yeah. In a ruling, Judge Burroughs was kind of hard on Harvard, saying, quote, "it had been plagued by antisemitism in recent years and could and should have done a better job of dealing with the issue." But she said Harvard was already taking steps to do just that when the Trump administration froze its funding. In fact, this was actually another way the administration, she said, had run afoul of federal law. It had accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark law that protects Americans from discrimination based on race, color and national origin. But Title VI requires a very clear step-by-step process for the government to follow to bring a school into compliance. And the judge said jumping straight to this huge funding freeze essentially skipped most of those steps.
MARTIN: So what happens now?
TURNER: Well, White House spokesperson Liz Huston said, quote, "we will immediately move to appeal this egregious decision, and we're confident we will ultimately prevail." Meanwhile, Harvard President Alan Garber's statement was notably subdued, pledging to, quote, "continue to assess the implications of the opinion, monitor further legal developments and be mindful of the changing landscape." And I think, Michel, that's a nod to the fact that Harvard and the White House have been battling on multiple fronts here while also talking behind the scenes about a potential settlement agreement, like the ones already signed by Columbia and Brown University. It's hard to know what effect this ruling is ultimately going to have, but I think it's pretty clear it strengthens Harvard's bargaining position.
MARTIN: That is NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Cory, thank you.
TURNER: You're welcome, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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