Trump unlawfully canceled Harvard's research grants, US judge rules

• US judge rules that Trump's actions violated Harvard's free-speech rights
• Harvard accused Trump of retaliation over hiring and teaching control
• Three other Ivy League schools settled with Trump administration over similar issues

BOSTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2 billion in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the prestigious Ivy League school.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston marked a major legal victory for Harvard as it seeks to cut a deal that could bring an end to the White House's multi-front conflict with the nation's oldest and richest university.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school became a central focus of the administration's broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at U.S. universities, which Trump says are gripped by antisemitic and "radical left" ideologies.

Among the earliest actions the administration took against Harvard was to cancel hundreds of grants awarded to university researchers on the grounds that the school failed to do enough to address harassment of Jewish students on its campus.

Harvard sued, arguing the Trump administration was retaliating against it in violation of its free-speech rights after it refused to meet officials' demands that it cede control over who it hires and who it teaches.

Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said the Republican president was right to combat antisemitism and that Harvard was "wrong to tolerate hateful behavior as long as it did."

But she said fighting antisemitism was not the administration's true aim and that officials wanted to pressure Harvard to accede to its demands in violation of its free-speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.