The temporary restraining order hands the university another win in its battle with the Trump administration, which has been trying to force change at Harvard.
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday swiftly suspended the latest attempt by the Trump administration to keep international students out of Harvard, a victory for the university amid a wider, winding legal war with the administration, which for weeks has been trying to force change at the elite institution.
Thursday’s temporary restraining order comes days after the same judge extended an order she issued last month blocking the administration’s earlier effort to bar international students from enrolling at the university. President Donald Trump tried again in a proclamation Wednesday, writing that allowing foreign nationals to study at Harvard was “detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers.”
Harvard’s lawyers, in an amended complaint filed Thursday, said the proclamation was “a patent effort to end-run this Court’s order.”
U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs granted the university’s request for a temporary restraining order on grounds that, without it, Harvard would “sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”
