Harvard wins second time in court in fight over Trump's foreign students ban

A federal judge on Monday blocked US President Donald Trump's administration from implementing his plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.

In the latest court order, the judge allowed Harvard University to keep hosting foreign students.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs granted the university a preliminary injunction Monday that prevents the government from enacting a June 4 proclamation denying entry to international students planning to attend the school, Bloomberg reported.

The injunction extends an earlier temporary bar.

Trump's proclamation prohibited foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard or participate in exchange visitor programs for an initial period of six months, and directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider whether to revoke visas of international students already enrolled at Harvard.

“This case is about core constitutional rights that must be safeguarded: freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech, each of which is a pillar of a functioning democracy and an essential hedge against authoritarianism,” she wrote.

Burroughs’ ruling is the second win for Harvard in its high-stakes fight with the Trump administration over its large international student population.

On June 20, the judge blocked a May 22 order by the US revoking Harvard’s certification to enroll foreign students.

Both administration actions strike at the heart of that population — one by aiming at the school’s eligibility to enroll foreign students and the other by focusing on their entry at the border.

Representatives of Harvard and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Harvard is the main target of Trump’s efforts to force universities to crack down on antisemitism, remove perceived political bias and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. 

Harvard has separately sued over a $2.6 billion funding freeze, and Burroughs has temporarily blocked that from moving forward, too. Trump has also threatened to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status.

Trump’s visa proclamation takes aim at a school where 27% of the students are foreign. At a June 16 hearing, Harvard attorney Ian Gershengorn said the visa proclamation had a “devastating” impact on Harvard that is intended to last for years.

“It separates roommates, teammates and classmates,” Gershengorn said. “It threatens labs, pioneering research, engineering innovations. It deprives students of graduate mentors and teachers. It deprives the university of a breadth of experience and approaches that fundamentally alters what it means to learn at Harvard.”

Harvard argues Trump’s proclamation violates its First Amendment right to reject government demands to control its governance, curriculum and the viewpoints of faculty and students. University lawyers say US actions targeting the school, including freezing billions of dollars in funding, could have a devastating impact on America’s oldest and richest university.

The Trump administration argues that the president has sweeping power to control immigration and national security, and judges can’t second-guess his exercise of that power. At the hearing, Justice Department lawyer Tiberius Davis said Trump took action against Harvard for valid reasons.

“We don’t trust Harvard to vet, host, monitor or discipline the foreign students that it is bringing into this country, where other universities we don’t have as many concerns yet,” Davis said. “They have a lot of unrest on campus. They have serious antisemitic conduct. Their own report has said this. They didn’t adequately discipline students.”

Trump acted against Harvard to ensure foreign nationals are “adequately vetted, adequately monitored and adequately disciplined if they violate the law or any other sort of standards of conduct that the university might have,” Davis said.

(With inputs from agencies)