Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump's plan to become a dictator includes first subjugating all possible sources of resistance, including the media, law firms and universities. The way he has gone after universities is to unilaterally cancel research contracts unless the universities allow him to effectively run the university and vet who is hired, who is admitted, and what is taught. Most universities faced with a calamitous loss of funding have caved and made a deal in which they have paid millions in tribute to prevent their research programs from being destroyed by presidential whim. Harvard was different. It resisted and sued to have the research funds restored.
Yesterday, Harvard won Round 1 of the ensuing court battle. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote an 84-page opinion stating that while Harvard could have done a better job of combating antisemitism on campus (Trump's nominal reason for halting $2 billion in research funding), that has nothing to do with research funding for cancer, Alzheimer's and other studies. She said the government was using claims of antisemitism for a "targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country's premier universities." She also saw through what Trump is doing and added: "The idea that fighting antisemitism is Defendants' true aim is belied by the fact that the majority of the demands they are making of Harvard to restore its research funding are directed, on their face, at Harvard's governance, staffing and hiring practices, and admissions policies—all of which have little to do with antisemitism and everything to do with Defendants' power and political views."
This is a major win for Harvard, and by extension, also for the more cowardly universities that caved to Trump. However, Harvard is not out of the woods yet. First, the government will appeal this ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and then to the Supreme Court, which generally gives Trump whatever he wants. Second, Trump has also punished Harvard in other ways. He has attempted to take away its ability to enroll foreign students, most of whom pay full freight and thus are a source of income. Additionally, he has threatened to take away its accreditation, something he has no power to do, but since when has his lack of authority to do something stopped him? That issue, too, is already being litigated.
There are rumors that Harvard is in discussions with Trump about the terms of surrender and getting him to remove all punishments in return for Harvard paying half a billion dollars in tribute. At the very least, this court ruling will strengthen Harvard's hand because it now has the option of hanging on and probably winning the appeal to the First Circuit. Then Trump has to guess whether the Supreme Court will save him. What he doesn't want is a clear Supreme Court ruling that, no, he cannot arbitrarily and unilaterally break existing government contracts on some fake (and irrelevant) premise. That would put him on a collision course with the Supreme Court, something he probably doesn't want because independent voters won't like it. Consequently, he might be willing to "accept" a much lower tribute than $500 million and Harvard might decide that paying, say, $100 million, gets this over with (for the time being) and is preferable to a long court battle, even if it establishes a terrible precedent. (V)