Overview

• U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs vacated the freeze and termination orders on Harvard’s federal research grants, ordering roughly $2.2 billion in funding restored.
• Burroughs found the actions violated the First Amendment and federal law, writing that antisemitism was used as a smokescreen for an ideologically driven campaign against top universities.
• The ruling bars officials from imposing new retaliatory freezes or terminations of Harvard funding based on the same grounds.
• The dispute escalated after an April 11 task-force letter demanded sweeping changes to Harvard’s governance, hiring, admissions and programs, which the university rejected.
• Hundreds of projects were disrupted during the freeze, and Harvard said it had to self-fund some research as other elite schools cut settlement deals, including Columbia and Brown, while the White House pressed Harvard for $500 million.