Judge will decide: "The Trump administration and Harvard University will appear before a federal judge on Monday as each party seeks outright victory in their clash over billions of dollars in research money that the government has taken from the school," reports The New York Times. "The hearing is likely to be a milestone in a lawsuit that partly hinges on what the government's role in higher education should be."
Judge Allison D. Burroughs is expected to issue a summary judgment, which decides the lawsuit without it advancing to trial. Harvard has sued the Trump administration over its pulling of research funding following Harvard's refusal to comply with the administration's demands, which included auditing to make sure there was sufficient viewpoint diversity in academic departments, verifying that professors weren't plagiarizing, and reporting lists of international students who had gotten into trouble. The Trump administration also claims Harvard has not handled antisemitism on campus. Harvard believes this crackdown to be an egregious and improper First Amendment violation and attempt by the federal government to wield control over the university.
"By August 2025, Harvard must make meaningful governance reform and restructuring to make possible major change consistent with this letter," wrote federal government officials back in April, "including: fostering clear lines of authority and accountability; empowering tenured professors and senior leadership, and, from among the tenured professoriate and senior leadership, exclusively those most devoted to the scholarly mission of the University and committed to the changes indicated in this letter; reducing the power held by students and untenured faculty; reducing the power held by faculty (whether tenured or untenured) and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship; and reducing forms of governance bloat, duplication, or decentralization that interfere with the possibility of the reforms indicated in this letter."
