A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the reversal of the Trump administration�s cuts to more than $2.6 billion in funding research grants for Harvard University.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs sided with the Ivy League school, ruling the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard�s rejection of White House demands for changes to its governance and policies.

The ruling delivers a significant victory to Harvard in its battle with the Trump administration, which also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status.

The ruling reverses a series of funding freezes that later became outright cuts as the Trump administration escalated its fight with the nation�s wealthiest university. If it stands, it promises to revive Harvard�s sprawling research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money.

Beyond the courthouse, the Trump administration and Harvard officials have been discussing a potential agreement that would end investigations and allow the university to regain access to federal funding. President Donald Trump has said he wants Harvard to pay no less than $500 million, but no deal has materialized even as the administration has struck agreements with Columbia and Brown.

Harvard�s lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal antisemitism task force.

The letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions. It was meant to address government accusations that the university had become a hotbed of liberalism and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment on campus.

Harvard President Alan Garber pledged to fight antisemitism but said no government �should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.�

(AP)