Overview

• At a July 21 hearing, Judge Allison Burroughs challenged government lawyers to provide evidence linking alleged campus antisemitism to the suspension of $2.6 billion in research grants.
• Harvard argues the funding cuts amount to unconstitutional retaliation that infringes on its First Amendment rights and exceeds executive authority.
• Since May, the Education Department and other federal agencies have frozen new awards and canceled existing contracts across diverse fields from cancer studies to national security research.
• University officials have begun self-funding critical projects but warn the endowment cannot fully cover the shortfall without risking lab closures and career losses.
• With Burroughs’s ruling still pending, Harvard continues to press for full restoration of its grants as legal scrutiny intensifies over federal oversight of academic freedom.