Harvard faces uncertainty ahead even after major court victory

The Trump administration has said it plans to “immediately appeal” a judge’s ruling restoring more than $2 billion in federal research funding for Harvard University, signaling that the White House will aggressively continue its efforts to take on elite higher education.

While a federal judge offered Harvard, the only school to take on the White House in court, a landmark victory on Wednesday, there’s still uncertainty ahead for the Ivy League university. And how the administration proceeds could have implications for other financially strained schools that have come under fire.

When the Trump administration froze billions of dollars in research funds this spring, officials argued it was an effort to crack down on antisemitism on campus. But Harvard became the epicenter of a broader fight over federal funding, academic freedom and campus oversight, which is unlikely to end anytime soon.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs rejected the administration’s argument, saying in her decision that there was “little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism.”

“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,” she wrote.

Tyler Coward, the lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that the ruling essentially affirmed that the Trump administration “trampled Harvard University’s First Amendment rights and broke civil rights law,” calling the administration’s efforts to target the funding “flatly unlawful and unconstitutional.”

It’s unclear what the ruling may portend for other schools that have taken less confrontational legal approaches but are still facing major demands. The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, to restore $584 million in frozen federal funds. The White House also remains in negotiations with Cornell University and Northwestern University.

Well before Burroughs’ ruling, President Donald Trump had turned to a familiar playbook, preemptively attacking the judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, and vowing to appeal in a July post to social media. Then moments after the decision, the White House affirmed an appeal was in the works – underscoring the financial pressures the administration can and will continue to place on the school.

“Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future. We will immediately move to appeal this egregious decision, and we are confident we will ultimately prevail in our efforts to hold Harvard accountable,” White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said.

In a nod to the uncertainty ahead, Harvard President Alan Garber offered a tempered response.

“Even as we acknowledge the important principles affirmed in today’s ruling, we will continue to assess the implications of the opinion, monitor further legal developments, and be mindful of the changing landscape in which we seek to fulfill our mission,” Garber said in a statement to the Harvard community Wednesday evening.

Dr. Walter Willett, a leading nutrition researcher at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was facing devastating cuts to two decades-long studies, welcomed the ruling – with caution.

“This will surely go to the Supreme Court, and we won’t relax our efforts to protect the public’s investment in research until we hear that an overdue check from NIH is in the Harvard bank account,” Willett said.

The administration’s plans mark the latest sign that after a number of high-profile legal challenges to its policies on topics like tariffs, deportations and the deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles, the White House is undeterred and pressing ahead as Trump reimagines the use of executive authority in his second term.

The ruling and forthcoming appeal also pose questions about the possibility of a settlement similar to deals struck by the White House and some of Harvard’s Ivy League colleagues.

As this legal battle played out, high-level officials from Harvard and the White House had concurrently been in discussion toward a high-dollar deal to restore all federal funding and eliminate all ongoing lawsuits – including a separate lawsuit with the Trump administration over Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. Burroughs ruled in Harvard’s favor in that case, though the decision didn’t preclude the administration from undertaking a formal review process that could eventually result in the university being unable to host foreign students and scholars.

“The funding pause will ultimately uphold and it’s still within Harvard’s best interest to work with the administration” toward a settlement deal, a source familiar with the White House strategy said. In the meantime, the source added, there are “a number of ways to hold them accountable.”

Last week, Trump publicly called for Harvard to pay “nothing less than $500 million,” telling his Education Secretary Linda McMahon, “They’ve been very bad. Don’t negotiate.”

The Trump administration has also been seeking new and creative ways to pressure Harvard, including by targeting the school’s patents.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting last week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pointed to those efforts as a way Trump’s team works together across agencies.

“I mean, we just have a blast, you know? Because Linda’s hitting Harvard, and she says, ‘What can we do?’ Now we send them a patent letter and hit them again. So we’re having fun together,” Lutnick said.

CNN’s Sandee LaMotte contributed to this story.

This story has been updated with additional reaction.