Chicago – May 04, 2025
The judge tasked with weighing in on the government’s reach into higher education in Harvard University’s recent lawsuit against the Trump administration is an experienced prosecutor and jurist with a history of taking on tough cases – including those involving both the Ivy League and the president.
“95% of life is showing up,” US District Court Allison Dale Burroughs quipped Monday morning inside a Boston courtroom where she is overseeing Harvard’s legal battle against the Trump administration over $2 billion in frozen federal funds.
Harvard has asked for an expedited final decision rather than an immediate order to restore the money, leaving $2 billion in federal grants and contracts the university says is critical to important research hanging in the balance. The university’s lawyers specifically asked in a court filing that Burroughs be assigned to this case, citing her involvement in a related case over federal research funding brought by the Association of American Universities, which includes Harvard.
Burroughs “is a brilliant jurist and I think she’ll give everyone a fair shake,” Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard, told CNN on Monday.
