A federal judge said she would issue a temporary order that would prevent the Trump administration from blocking the school’s ability to enroll international students.
Harvard won a temporary victory on Thursday in a legal battle with the Trump administration over whether it can enroll international students, after a federal judge said that the university could continue to do so for now.
The judge, Allison D. Burroughs, said she would extend an order from last week blocking the government’s attempts to prevent international students from enrolling at the school as the two sides continue to argue the matter in court.
At the same time, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security hinted that the Trump administration was pursuing other ways to bar international students from enrolling at the Ivy League university.
The Trump administration had been trying to ban international students at Harvard as part of a multipronged attack against the school, which has included halting billions in federal funds. Government officials have accused the school of harboring antisemitism and, in a court filing on Thursday, also accused the school of working with the Chinese Communist Party.
The government has not offered any particular evidence for these claims, and Harvard officials have maintained they are in full compliance with legal requirements to report foreign donations. The university has accused the Trump administration of violating its First Amendment rights and targeting it as part of a political crusade.
Its lawyers have cited a barrage of social media posts by President Trump that attack the university and its professors for their political ideology.
