Trump's Ban on Foreign Students at Harvard Hits Another Snag

A federal judge said on June 16 that she would issue a brief extension of an order temporarily blocking President Donald Trump's plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard University while she decides whether to issue a longer-term injunction.

- 

BOSTON -

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, at the end of a hearing in Boston in Harvard's legal challenge to the restrictions, extended to June 23 a temporary restraining order that had been set to expire on June 19. She said she wanted to give herself more time to prepare a ruling. "We'll kick out an opinion as soon as we can," she said.

The judge scheduled the hearing after issuing a temporary restraining order on June 5 preventing the administration from implementing a proclamation that Mr. Trump had signed a day earlier. A preliminary injunction would provide longer-term relief to Harvard while its lawsuits proceed.

Almost 6,800 international students attended Harvard in its most recent school year, making up about 27 percent of the student population of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school.

The judge, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, did not indicate how she would ultimately rule. But she said a U.S. Department of Justice attorney defending Mr. Trump's policy faced an "uphill battle" convincing her that Harvard would not be irreparably harmed if the proclamation was implemented.