The Trump administration will ask the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals to revive its termination of roughly $2.2 billion in federal research grants to Harvard University, with oral argument scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT) on Monday.

The case tests whether a president can leverage federal research funding to force policy change at US universities. Since returning to the White House, Trump has used civil rights investigations, deportations of non-citizen students and accreditation threats to reshape elite and public institutions, which he has described as gripped by "radical left" ideologies.

What triggered the $2.2 billion cutoff?

In April 2025, administration officials sent Harvard a list of 10 demands, including ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and appointing third-party auditors to monitor academic departments for viewpoint diversity.

Harvard president Alan Garber rejected the demands, saying: "no government - regardless of which party is in power - should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue."

Within hours of Garber's statement, the administration froze federal grants, citing Harvard's alleged failure to address harassment of Jewish students during campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. It ultimately terminated about $2.2 billion in grants.

Harvard, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sued to block the freeze, calling it retaliation for speech protected by the Constitution's First Amendment.

What did the lower court decide?

US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, sided with Harvard. In an 84-page decision last year, she wrote that the Trump administration used "antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country's premier universities."

The Justice Department appealed to the 1st Circuit, arguing: "the government is not required to continue giving taxpayer dollars to universities that have demonstrated deliberate indifference to antisemitic conduct and discrimination on campus."

How does this fit the broader litigation?

Harvard has secured several court victories against the administration's campaign. On Tuesday, the same appeals court will separately review another ruling that barred the administration from preventing Harvard from hosting international students.

The administration has also filed three other lawsuits against the university. One, launched by the Justice Department in March, alleged Harvard violated a civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish students and sought to claw back federal funding. A judge dismissed that case in August.

Monday's argument will indicate whether the $2.2 billion in terminated research grants stays frozen while the litigation proceeds, a decision that will shape budget planning for one of the federal government's largest academic research recipients.