A federal judge nullified Wednesday the Trump administration’s orders freezing more than $2.6 billion in grants to Harvard University, ruling that the government violated the First Amendment and federal law in withholding research funding over the school’s handling of campus antisemitism.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard’s request for summary judgment, barring the administration from denying grant funding frozen in April and May after a federal antisemitism task force found the university in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

“Defendants and the President are right to combat antisemitism and to use all lawful means to do so. Harvard was wrong to tolerate hateful behavior for as long as it did,” said the judge, an Obama appointee, who sits on the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

“The record here, however, does not reflect that fighting antisemitism was Defendants’ true aim in acting against Harvard and, even if it were, combatting antisemitism cannot be accomplished on the back of the First Amendment,” she said in her 84-page opinion.

The judge’s order came as a major victory for Harvard in its legal brawl with the Trump administration, a battle of the titans triggered by the university’s lackluster response to rising campus hostility toward Jewish students after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli civilians.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston said the administration will “immediately move to appeal this egregious decision, and we are confident we will ultimately prevail in our efforts to hold Harvard accountable.”

Madi Biedermann, Department of Education deputy assistant secretary for communications, noted that Judge Burroughs ruled in 2019 against Students for Fair Admissions in its lawsuit against Harvard over race-based admissions.

The Supreme Court reversed the lower-court decision in 2023.

“In an unsurprising turn of events, the same Obama-appointed judge that ruled in favor of Harvard’s illegal race-based admissions practices – which was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court – just ruled against the Trump Administration’s efforts to hold Harvard accountable for rampant discrimination on campus,” she said in a statement.

“Cleaning up our nation’s universities will be a long road, but worth it,” she said.

The judge wrote in her opinion that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by retaliating against Harvard over its exercise of free speech.

She also said that the freeze orders failed to comply with the Administrative Procedures Act and Title VI, which bans discrimination based on race, color and national origin.

Judge Burroughs agreed that “Harvard has been plagued by antisemitism in recent years and could (and should) have done a better job of dealing with the issue.

“That said, there is, in reality, little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism,” she said. “In fact, a review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

In June, Judge Burroughs issued a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration from denying Harvard-sponsored visas to foreign students.

Columbia and Brown universities settled their Title VI cases with the administration by agreeing to financial settlements as well as a host of anti-discrimination measures.

Both universities have had their federal funding restored.

Judge Burroughs placed an emphasis on the importance of continued federal grants for research at Harvard, saying that scientists and others “have operated for years under the assumption that they would be able to continue to compete on fair terms for federal funding.”

“To upend the longstanding, collaborative relationship between the government and Harvard and its partner institutions without considering alternatives or articulating a connection to the problem of antisemitism sounds in arbitrariness and reeks of pretext,” the opinion said.

She also said the administration enacted the freezes without evaluating their impact on Jewish researchers, or whether Jews would support cutting off research.

“It is unlikely that any Jew, even one directly impacted by antisemitism would be in favor of stopping research on, for example, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, or autism to name a few, as a means of redressing their unrelated harm,” said the opinion.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression applauded the ruling, saying that the government “may not use civil rights laws as a pretext to violate the First Amendment.”

“Today, a federal court echoed what FIRE has said all along:The Trump administration trampled Harvard University’s First Amendment rights and broke civil rights laws when it yanked billions in federal grants and contracts over alleged Title VI violations,” said Tyler Coward, FIRE lead counsel for government affairs.

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.