Here's what to know about Judge Allison D. Burroughs, federal jurist overseeing Harvard-Trump case

Boston Globe

4 days ago

Here's some things to know about her.
Her appointment to the federal bench
Burroughs, 64, a Boston native, appointed to the federal bench by President Obama in July 2014. She was confirmed by the Senate five months later in December 2014.
Key cases
In her decade as a federal judge, Burroughs, whose father attended Harvard, and who was rejected when she applied as a young woman, repeatedly has overseen high-profile litigation involving the Ivy League school.
She also is no stranger to ruling on actions taken by the Trump administration.
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Muslim travel ban
In 2017, Burroughs temporarily halted President Trump's Muslim travel ban that disallowed visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries and turned Boston's Logan International Airport into an epicenter of the immigration debate in the early weeks of his presidency.
Harvard admissions decision overturned
In 2019, when Students for Fair Admissions sued Harvard, claiming that the university's admissions practices were discriminatory to Asian Americans, Burroughs sided with the school, upholding its admissions policy. Burroughs decision was overturned on appeal in 2023 with the US Supreme Court declaring affirmative action in higher education admissions unconstitutional.
Harvard and MIT deportation suit
In 2020, Burroughs presided over Harvard and MIT's challenge to the Trump administration's plan to deport international students taking online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. ICE withdrew the policy before Burroughs issued a ruling.
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Venezuelan migrants
sent to Martha's Vineyard
In 2022, Burroughs oversaw a case after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis relocated
Department of Energy cuts
And this spring, Burroughs temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Energy from cutting more than $400 million in annual spending in federal funding to universities after the Association of American Universities — of which Harvard is a member — led a lawsuit against the proposed cuts.
Harvard's federal funding freeze case
Burroughs was assigned to Harvard's latest case after lawyers argued that it was related to a pending lawsuit before Burroughs and brought by the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors . The lawyers asked that the new lawsuit be assigned to the same judge.
The AAUP chapter sued Harvard to block the Trump administration's review of the school's federal funding, arguing that it was unconstitutional.
In the most recent Harvard case, the Trump administration's legal case for cutting nearly $3 billion in federal aid to the university was
met with skepticism from Burroughs.
During a high-stakes, two-hour hearing on Monday, Burroughs described the government's arguments as 'a bit mind-boggling.'
She pressed a lawyer from the US Justice Department to explain how cutting billions of dollars in research funding to Harvard would meaningfully combat antisemitism on campus.
She's a granddaughter of Russian immigrants
Burroughs, who noted that she was Jewish during the hearing, did not issue a ruling on Monday.
Her grandfather, Harry Burroughs, was a Russian-born Jew who escaped pogroms at the turn of the 20th century and became a Boston attorney and social reformer, according to
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At age 14, Harry Burroughs landed in Portland, Maine, and made his way to Boston, where he sold newspapers on Beacon Hill street corners. He later landed a scholarship to Suffolk University, the journal reported.
In 1928, Harry Burroughs founded
And in 1935, Burroughs' grandfather also founded a nonprofit youth development organization called
Judge Burroughs' father, Warren, was a Harvard graduate and World War II veteran.
She was educated in Vermont and Pennsylvania
According to her
She's a former federal prosecutor
Burroughs worked 16 years as a federal prosecutor, first in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and then in Massachusetts. During that time, she developed expertise in white collar and economic crimes, intellectual property offenses, computer crimes, money laundering, mail and wire fraud, economic espionage, terrorism, telemarketing schemes, and complex RICO prosecutions, the judicial profile said.
From 2005 to 2014, Burroughs worked in private practice as a partner at Boston's Nutter, McClennen & Fish where she was a member of the government investigations and white collar defense practice group.
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There, Burroughs represented people and corporations in criminal and civil cases, primarily in federal court.
Source: Boston Globe, Lawyers Weekly
Tonya Alanez can be reached at