Even If Harvard Wins This Court Case, the Trump Fight Won't Go Away
Legal analysts say Harvard has a strong case in arguing that the U.S. government improperly cut $2.2 billion in federal funding from the Ivy League school. The federal district judge presiding over a key hearing Monday appeared skeptical of the government's arguments.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
14 minutes ago
- New York Times
To Build Affordable Housing, One State Could Loosen Flood Protections
New Jersey officials this week proposed that affordable housing projects in coastal flood zones be allowed to apply for 'hardship' exemptions from new building regulations meant to protect homes from rising sea levels. The proposed revision to the regulations, known as the Resilient Environments and Landscape Rules, aims to ensure that the environmental guidelines don't discourage the construction of affordable homes in a state experiencing a housing crunch. But some climate experts and activists in the state, where the vast majority of the coast line is at high risk of erosion and sea level rise, say that such a waiver could place some of New Jersey's most economically vulnerable residents in harm's way. 'What is expensive are the storms,' said Jennifer Coffey, the executive director of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, a nonprofit. 'These are the people who are the least resilient to recovering from natural disasters.' The rules were first proposed last summer and have yet to be enacted. They are the final part of a broader package of measures addressing climate change that was introduced by Gov. Philip D. Murphy in 2020. The regulatory package also includes statewide rules for infrastructure projects and the managing of storm water. Rules offering protection against inland flooding were adopted two years ago. The proposed revisions, if implemented, would make New Jersey among the first states to integrate protective measures against climate change, in particular sea level rise, into its building code. The revisions were posted on Monday for a 60-day public comment period, which will be followed by a hearing in September and final approval in January. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Obama releases rare statement on ‘Russia-gate' after Trump accuses him of ‘treason'
Former President Barack Obama has released a rare statement on 'Russia-gate' after President Donald Trump accused him of committing 'treason.' 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement published by multiple outlets Tuesday. The allegations against Obama stemmed from a report issued Friday by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard claimed Obama and his top officials committed 'treasonous conspiracy' in the investigation surrounding Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump has insisted the assessments about the interference are a 'hoax.' The national intelligence director said she was referring Obama administration officials, including ex-FBI director James Comey, to the Justice Department for prosecution over allegations they had 'manufactured' intelligence to substantiate the idea that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump beat Obama's former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The anti-Obama rhetoric continued when Gabbard appeared on Maria Bartiromo's Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures over the weekend and accused the former president of orchestrating a 'years-long coup' to keep Trump from the White House. Trump shared a fake, AI- generated, video of Obama being arrested and thrown in jail on his Truth Social account Sunday. In the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump accused his predecessor of 'treason.' "It's there, he's guilty. This was treason," Trump said, according to Reuters. "They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever imagined, even in other countries." Trump did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. After days of accusations and threats of prosecution being hurled at Obama the former president released a statement. 'Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,' Rodenbush said. 'But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.' 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,' he added. Rodenbush also mentioned the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee's 2020 report that found Russia used resources, including Republican political operative Paul Manafort and the WikiLeaks website, to try to influence the 2016 election in Trump's favor. The report did not conclude the Trump campaign engaged with Russia to help carry out the alleged conspiracy. The new allegations against Obama come as the Trump administration is embroiled in its own conflict surrounding the handling of government files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Gabbard called Obama's statement 'the art of deflection' in a Fox News interview Tuesday. She then repeated her earlier talking points: "Led by President Obama, there was an effort to create a document that would serve as a foundation for what would be a years-long coup against President Trump, therefore trying to subvert the will of the American people.'
22 minutes ago
Beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam
Ken Beckley never went to Harvard, but he has been wearing a crimson Harvard cap in a show of solidarity. As he sees it, the Trump administration's attacks on the school echo a case of government overreach at his own alma mater, Indiana University. Beckley, a former head of the school's alumni association, rallied fellow graduates this spring in an unsuccessful effort to stop Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, from removing three alumni-elected members from Indiana University's Board of Trustees and handpicking their replacements. No government effort to influence a university — private or public — has gotten more attention than the clash at Harvard, where the Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding as it seeks a series of policy changes. But far beyond the Ivy League, Republican officials are targeting public universities in several states with efforts seeking similar ends. 'What's happened nationally is now affecting Indiana,' said Beckley, who bought Harvard caps in bulk and passes them out to friends. Officials in conservative states took aim at higher education before President Donald Trump began his second term, driven in part by the belief that colleges are out of touch — too liberal and loading up students with too much debt. The first efforts focused on critical race theory, an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation's institutions, and then on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Since Trump took office, officials in states including Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Idaho increasingly have focused on university governance — rules for who picks university presidents and boards and how much control they exert over curriculums and faculty tenure. As at Harvard, which Trump has decried as overly influenced by liberal thinking, those state officials have sought to reduce the power of faculty members and students. 'They've realized that they can take a bit of a step further, that they can advance their policy priorities through those levers they have through the state university system,' said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow who studies higher education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. In Indiana, Braun said he picked new trustees who will guide the school 'back in the right direction.' They include an anti-abortion attorney and a former ESPN host who was disciplined because she criticized the company's policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Braun's administration has ramped up scrutiny of hiring practices at colleges statewide. Indiana's attorney general, Todd Rokita, has sent letters to the University of Notre Dame, Butler University and DePauw University questioning the legality of their DEI programs. Butler, a private, liberal arts school in Indianapolis, was founded by an abolitionist in the decade leading up to the Civil War and admitted women and students of color from the start. 'I hope that Butler will uphold the standards they were founded on,' said Edyn Curry, president of Butler's Black Student Union. In Florida, the state university system board in June rejected longtime academic Santa Ono for the presidency at the University of Florida, despite a unanimous vote of approval by the school's own Board of Trustees. The unprecedented reversal followed criticism from conservatives about Ono's past support for DEI programs. That followed the conservative makeover of New College of Florida, a small liberal arts school once known as the state's most progressive. After Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a group of conservatives to its governing board, many faculty left, including Amy Reid, who now manages a team focused on higher education at the free-expression group PEN America. 'When our students started organizing at New College, one of their slogans was 'Your Campus is Next,'' said Reid, who saw the gender studies program she directed defunded and then cut. 'So no, we're not surprised when you see other states redefining what can be in a general education class, because we've seen it happen already.' The changes at several public universities are proceeding without battles of the kind seen at Harvard. In a standoff seen widely as a test of private universities' independence, Harvard has filed lawsuits against the administration's moves to cut its federal funding and block its ability to host international students. In Iowa, new DEI restrictions are taking effect in July for community colleges. And the board that governs the state's three public universities is weighing doing something similar to Idaho, where a new law imposes restrictions on requiring students to take DEI-related courses to meet graduation requirements. Historically, the Iowa board has been focused on big-picture issues like setting tuition rates and approving degree programs. Now, there's a perceived sense that faculty should not be solely responsible for academic matters and that the trustees should play a more active role, said Joseph Yockey, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and the former president of Iowa's faculty senate. 'What we started to see more recently is trustees losing confidence,' Yockey said. A new law in Ohio bans DEI programs at public colleges and universities and also strips faculty of certain collective bargaining rights and tenure protections. There are few guardrails limiting how far oversight boards can change public institutions, said Isabel McMullen, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin who researches higher education. 'For a board that really does want to wreak havoc on an institution and overthrow a bunch of different programs, I think if a board is interested in doing that, I don't really see what's stopping them aside from students and faculty really organizing against it,' McMullen said. The initiatives on state and federal levels have led to widespread concerns about an erosion of college's independence from politics, said Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors. 'They have to not only face an attack from the state legislature, but also from the federal government as well,' said Kamola, who is also a professor of political science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a pair of bills in June that impose new limits on student protests and give gubernatorial-appointed boards that oversee the state's universities new powers to control the curriculum and eliminate degree programs. Cameron Samuels, executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an advocacy group, said politicians in the state are taking control of universities to dictate what is acceptable. 'When someone controls the dissemination of ideas, that is a really dangerous sign for the future of democracy,' Samuels said. The 21-year-old who is transgender and nonbinary went to college in Massachusetts and got into Harvard for graduate school, but as the Trump administration began targeting the institution, he instead chose to return to his home state and attend the University of Texas in Austin. 'I at least knew what to expect,' he said.
