‘Absurd’: Judge shuts down Trump’s attempt to ‘squelch diverse viewpoints’ blocks Harvard international student ban—again

A federal judge in Boston has stepped in once more to stop the Trump administration from enforcing rules that would ban international students from attending Harvard University.

On Monday, a U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs’s decision, clearly stated that the government’s attempt to control a respected university violated free speech rights, stopping the administration’s latest effort to block foreign students, even calling it ““absurd,” in one part of her response.

As found by AP News and NY Times, this new court order ensures that international students can keep traveling to the United States to study at Harvard while the legal case continues. The ruling is another legal loss for the administration in its broader effort to target the famous Ivy League school.

The administration’s actions against Harvard come after a long pressure campaign meant to force the university to change how it operates and its internal policies. This effort has taken many forms, including major financial penalties for Harvard. Earlier, the administration cut more than $2.6 billion in research funding, ended federal contracts, and threatened to take away the university’s tax-exempt status. These moves followed the President’s claim that Harvard is a stronghold of liberal ideas.

Trump keeps fighting Harvard and losing

The fight over international students grew more serious in April when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) brought foreign student enrollment into the conflict. The DHS Secretary demanded that Harvard hand over a large number of records about any possibly dangerous or illegal activities involving its international students. Harvard said it would comply with this request. However, the DHS Secretary later claimed the university’s response was not good enough.

This cancellation seriously affected Harvard’s roughly 7,000 international students, who comprise a quarter of the university’s total student body. Without the certification, these students would have had to either transfer to another school or risk staying in the U.S. illegally. Harvard quickly fought back in court, suing the Department of Homeland Security in May. The university called the DHS’s move an illegal punishment for refusing to give in to White House demands about campus policies, including student protests, admissions, and hiring rules.

Judge Burroughs had already shown skepticism about the administration’s tactics, temporarily stopping the DHS action just hours after Harvard first filed its lawsuit. An initial injunction was granted on Friday, making the administration’s efforts even harder. The latest injunction on Monday came in response to a new move by the President, who on June 4 issued a statement trying to stop foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard, this time using a different legal argument.

In her Monday order, Judge Burroughs said, “core constitutional rights that must be safeguarded — freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech… must be zealously defended and not taken for granted. The government’s misplaced efforts to control a reputable academic institution and squelch diverse viewpoints seemingly because they are, in some instances, opposed to this administration’s own views, threaten these rights… to accomplish this, at least in part, on the backs of international students, with little thought to the consequences to them or, ultimately, to our own citizens.”

Either way, you know Trump is going to try again and we’ll get another response. This will happen until we can put an end to this.