What to expect as Harvard takes on the Trump administration in federal court

Harvard University will be back in court Monday for a major hearing in its funding fight case against the Trump administration, the next step in a battle over restoring more than $2 billion in federal funding for research frozen by the White House this spring.

Harvard University will be back in court Monday for a major hearing in its funding fight case against the Trump administration, the next step in a battle over restoring more than $2 billion in federal funding for research frozen by the White House this spring. US District Judge Allison Burroughs is expected to hear oral arguments from Harvard’s legal team and lawyers for the Department of Justice over the school’s request that she declare the funding freeze unlawful. It marks a critical moment for what’s become the flashpoint of a major clash over academic freedom, federal funding, and campus oversight — and a belief inside the White House that targeting the country’s most elite academic institutions is a winning political issue for President Donald Trump. Harvard has warned that the Trump administration’s funding freeze has put the university’s medical, scientific and technological research at risk, and that the government is enacting a “pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the Government’s control over its academic programs,” according to the original legal complaint filed in April. The university claimed in the complaint that the government is violating the First Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. It also argued the funding freeze, which could be made permanent, has been “unreasonable and unreasoned.” The Trump administration, meanwhile, says that Harvard has failed to address antisemitism on campus in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and that it is now acting within its authority. “It is the policy of the United States under the Trump Administration not to fund institutions that failed to adequately address antisemitism in their programs,” the administration has argued.