Judge continues temporary order blocking efforts to ban international students from attending Harvard University

A federal judge has delayed a ruling on whether to continue blocking President Trump’s proclamation that would bar international students from attending Harvard University.

The New York Times reports that Judge Allison D. Burroughs has left a temporary restraining order against the proclamation in place. She said she would rule by next week on whether to issue an injunction that would have the order remain in effect until the conclusion of a lawsuit Harvard has filed against the administration over the issue.

The judge's decision to put off her ruling for another week followed a 90-minute hearing on Monday in which a lawyer for Harvard argued that the university had been subjected to “the most irregular and improper treatment that a university has ever suffered at the hands of the government.” He called the situation reminiscent of the McCarthy era.

In his proclamation, issued on June 4, President Trump invoked a 70-year-old law that gives the White House wide authority to block foreigners whom it views as dangerous to the United States from entering the country.

Ian Gershengorn, Harvard’s lawyer, argued that although the authority had been used dozens of times, it had never before been used against a domestic entity until now.

Tiberius Davis, a Justice Department lawyer, denied in court that the administration was singling out Harvard for adverse treatment.  Davis said the president issued the proclamation because Harvard had failed to respond adequately to requests for information about its international students, and because it maintained ties to China and “other foreign adversaries.”

The administration has accused Harvard of tolerating campus antisemitism and of continuing relations with countries that present national security concerns, specifically China and Iran.

The Trump administration has tried four times to restrict or end Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students. If it succeeds, about 7,000 students and scholars could be affected, potentially delivering a disabling blow to the university’s finances, curriculum and identity.

Alan M. Garber, the president of Harvard, has accused the Trump administration of waging a politically motivated crusade against the school, and said the actions were retaliation “for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty and our student body.”