Fight over federal funding for Harvard is now in the hands of a judge
Steven Lehotsky, an attorney representing Harvard, told U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs that the federal government violated Harvard's First Amendment rights while Attorney Michael Velchik, who represents the Trump administration, said the government has the power to revoke its contracts and re-allocate the funds elsewhere.
The fight between the Ivy League school and the federal government picked up speed in the spring when the Trump administration sent Harvard a letter demanding it make changes to admissions and hiring policies and have outside scrutiny of some of its programs in order to combat antisemitism on campus. Harvard refused to comply with the letter saying it threatened the university's autonomy and the government shot back by moving to freeze $2.2 billion in funds.
Lehotsky argued Monday that the government misused the Civil Rights Act by punishing all of Harvard's labs and grant recipients with the revocation of money, regardless of whether they had anything to do with alleged antisemitism.
"Alice in Wonderland, sentence first, verdict later," Lehotsky said.
Michael Velchik began his oral arguments by laying out instances in which he argued Jewish students felt uncomfortable or scared at Harvard. Then, he said the government was simply revoking Harvard's funds because the university violated its contracts with the government.
"Harvard is here because it wants the money. It wants billions of dollars in grant dollars and we know that," Velchik said.
Judge Burroughs, at one point, questioned whether the administration can cancel contracts just because it disagrees with a certain viewpoint calling the argument, "a bit mind boggling."
Now, the case is in Burroughs' hands and legal experts say other schools around the country are watching.
"You see institutions in Minnesota, in California, it's just like all over the country, they're definitely following this because it has implications for what it means for an institution to have autonomy," said Raquel Muniz, at associate professor of education at Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Associate professor at the Boston College School of Law.
Whoever wins the day, some legal experts believe the case could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.
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