Reply to Harvard Rejects Trump Admin’s Demands, Going to Court

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Harvard had a good day and their arguments made much more sense than DOJ.

This outcome will have major impacts for all our great universities.

We need to get funding for scientific research back asap. Our students and grad students are relying on this.[/quote]

The DOJ lawyer (sadly a Harvard alum) sounded like a dolt. The judge was trying so hard to understand the logic of the Trump admin’s case but it just wasn’t present.  Such a waste of tax dollars to try this frivolous case.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/7/22/harvard-funding-oral-arguments/
BOSTON — A federal judge on Monday appeared skeptical of the federal government’s justification for freezing nearly $3 billion in research funding to Harvard, as lawyers for the two parties asked for a speedy decision in a high-stakes case that could determine the future of Harvard’s research enterprise.

Speaking in front of a packed Boston courtroom, United States District Judge Allison D. Burroughs pressed a lawyer for the Department of Justice to explain how steep funding cuts to Harvard’s research centers were connected to the White House’s stated goal of combatting antisemitism within the University.

“They’re not funding speech, they’re funding research. And you’re tying that research to speech,” Burroughs said to Michael K. Velchik ’12, who represented the government alone.

The nearly three-hour hearing saw University lawyers blast the Trump administration’s funding freeze as flagrantly unconstitutional and a violation of Harvard’s right to free speech. The administration’s campaign against Harvard “is a blatant, unrepentant violation of the First Amendment,” Steven P. Lehotsky, a lawyer for the University, said during oral arguments.

But Velchik argued that the funding cuts were a legitimate response to antisemitic incidents at Harvard. He pointed to the University’s widely panned response to pro-Palestine protests, including an encampment in Harvard Yard and the vandalism of the John Harvard statue last year, in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

“Since then, students and organizations have sued Harvard for its failure to address antisemitism, donors have stopped giving to Harvard, citing the antisemitism,” Velchik said. “Law enforcement has brought criminal charges for assault and battery against Jewish students.”

Minutes later, Burroughs interjected. How is combatting antisemitism, she asked Velchik, connected to pulling research funding?

The federal government, Burroughs added, was justifying “protesting Jews and upholding American values while, on the other hand, taking steps that are very antithetical to those interests.”
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