At First Circuit, Trump admin disputes judge’s authority to restore research funding to Harvard

A First Circuit panel heard the Trump administration argue it had authority to cancel more than $2 billion in Harvard research grants over claims the university was 'indifferent' to antisemitism, a freeze a lower court already ruled unlawfully retaliatory. Judge Sandra Lynch pointed out there were no findings and no investigation before the funding was pulled, just an announcement that it was over.

The government now argues the case belongs in the Court of Federal Claims rather than district court, leaning on a Supreme Court precedent involving NIH funding. The lower court, however, had already concluded the administrative record showed antisemitism being used as a smokescreen for an ideological assault on the university, a Title VI and First Amendment matter squarely inside federal court's lane.

Harvard remains the lone holdout among major universities that have cut separate deals with the administration over the same claims, while also fighting a parallel Justice Department demand for admissions records.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.