Washington DC, July 22 . Lawyers for Harvard University and the Trump administration have fought in a Boston courtroom over President Donald Trump’s decision to strip billions of dollars in government funding for Harvard’s education programmes.
In a hearing held yesterday, the judge overseeing the case seemed sceptical of the move to freeze more than US$2bn in federal grants for the university in a stated effort to fight antisemitism, reports BBC.
Judge Allison Burroughs questioned how denying money allocated for medical research would stop
antisemitism while calling the government’s claims “mind-boggling”.
However, the lawyers for Trump argued that the cuts are deserved and necessary to punish anti Jewish bias.
The closely watched case comes as the White House also moves to prevent the university from accessing a visa system that allows it to enrol foreign students.
Judge Burroughs, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, has already made several interim rulings in favour of Harvard in a separate lawsuit over the foreign student visa system.
However, in the battle over funding, Harvard has asked the judge to reach a decision by September three – the deadline set by the Trump administration to the university to wind up its financial obligations with regards to federal grants.
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