The Department of Justice filed a notice today saying it intends to appeal a ruling that said it couldn’t withhold research grants. File Photo by CJ Gunther/EPA
Dec. 19 (UPI) — The Department of Justice is appealing a ruling that prevents it from freezing federal research funding to Harvard.
U.S. Judge Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts on Sept. 3 cited First Amendment rights in an order blocking the administration’s attempt to withhold more than $2 billion in government funding. The suit accused the president of using the funding “to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard.”
It was “difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” Burroughs wrote.
Friday’s filing didn’t say what the department’s arguments would be but said it would appeal the decision.
The appeal will also include a related case brought by the American Association of University Professors and other groups, The New York Times reported. Todd Wolfson, the president of the A.A.U.P., said in a statement that the appeal was “just a continuation of their shameless campaign to halt critical research funding in an attempt to chill universities and faculty from engaging in any speech, teaching and research that Donald Trump disfavors.”
A Harvard spokesperson said in a statement that the university was “confident that the Court of Appeals will affirm the district court’s opinion.”
Harvard sued in April after federal funding was withdrawn and the government demanded institutional oversight.
The 51-page lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Massachusetts, asked a judge to block the funding freeze, arguing it was “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”
“All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: Allow the Government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution’s ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote.
The Justice Department argued it could cancel the grants because Harvard had not done enough to eradicate antisemitism on campus. It also said the grants were “not charitable gratuities.”
Burroughs wrote that the courts must “act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution, and to ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of a government committed to its agenda no matter the cost.”
President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order reclassifying marijuana from a schedule I to a schedule III controlled substance in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo