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A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration’s freeze of $2.2 billion in funds for Harvard University was illegal.

Judge Allison Burroughs agreed with Harvard’s arguments that the administration imposed the funding freeze in retaliation for the Ivy League university’s refusal to capitulate to demands for reforms that violated First Amendment protections under the Constitution.

The administration froze the grants after Harvard rejected demands that it end its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and screen international students for ideological biases.

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[–] 12 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Oh good. I'm sure they can just spin all that cancer and AIDS research back up.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    There's a massive sick burn in this district court opinion aimed at the supreme court justices:

    This alludes to a recent dissent from Justice Jackson which elevated Calvinball officially into American legal jurisprudence.

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  • 18 comments in c/politics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 78 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Why is it when regular people do something illegal they face massive fines or completely upend their lives possible for years, But those in power are simply told to please stop for now?

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago

    Because the supreme Court said he could.

    Anything that is an official act from him he can't be processecuted for, regardless if it is illegal or not.

    At least judges can force some of it to be undone. But that's also the fascist playbook first page: waste your oppositions time.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Awesome news.

    Now hopefully more colleges will start to fight and not submit to the nazi regime.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    They never should have capitulated to begin with. Target is a place I don't know that I'll ever shop at again because of this. Idk if there's anything they could do now to get me to come back, short of removing everybody tangentially related to the choice to suck Trump's dick instead of sticking up for minority rights, both trans and DEI as a whole.

    Anyone or any organization that didn't fight and just caved under pressure, or made a performative action of "fighting" is dead to me. It's always been an excuse to be shitty, not because they had to do anything. Hell, the likes of NPR that rely almost entirely on government funding didn't bend the knee at the possible expense of their existence. It really makes these other entities look real fascist.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Funny how much of Trump's bullshit is illegal (and stupid.)

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    This constant winning, by Trump's targets, isn't so bad after all.

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  • Just watched Lindsay Ellis's video that within the 2 hours tackled that issue.

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  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Harvard's endowment is $53 billion. Explain exactly why they need tax payer money when the fed is already extremely in debt that's never going to be paid back? Seriously fuck the Trump administration, but this is a non-partisan issue.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Endowments are allocated to different programs and resources, and frequently are hard-locked to what they were donated for.

    Plus the illegal and punitive defunding was based on entirely made up bullshit and should be loudly rejected so other universities have more of a will to fight and not bend the knee to the fascist regime

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Sounds inefficient. It's almost like they're just numbers on a computer screen.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    These research grants aren’t a gift and they’re not magically landing at Harvard or any other institution. Rather, they’re awarded to the very best applicants through a rigorous competitive bidding process that’s intended to identify scientific research that stands to benefit the country.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    If it was non-partisan then congress could just make the changes when doing the budget. But Trump is trying to bypass our democracy.

    Additionally investment in research is a great investment in the country. You're right that we might want to look at how we're spending our money, but that's not what's happening here.

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