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- [00:01]
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- [02:00]
Michael Popak
We got a new filing and a new development in the Harvard fight against the Trump administration to try to stop them from cutting off over $9 billion worth of funding which only impacts regular Americans because that's being used for research in the areas of cancer and diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and artificial intelligence. It just harms us. Harvard being the largest university, the most prestigious university I would grant you in the United States with the largest endowed, but they're not taking this threat to their First Amendment rights, their academic freedom. Standing down, sitting down. Alan Garber, its president has come out fighting, hired a major law firm, Quinn Emanuel, I'm gonna talk about in a minute. And now there's a new filing by another boutique law firm out of New York known as Solendi Gay, on behalf of the American association of University Professors, Harvard faculty chapter, against the United States Department of Justice and others to stop the $9 billion from being cut off as a violation of First Amendment rights, due process rights, administrative procedure rights and the rest. And it's been assigned to Judge Burroughs, a hard nosed judge up in Massachusetts, federal judge appointed by Obama who's not afraid to go against the Trump administration. She was one of the first to block his Muslim and other travel bans in the first administration. Right judge, right court, right law firms. Really important at this moment. I'm Michael Popak and you're on the Midas Touch Network. Let me catch you up here on the Harvard story. Let's start with the you know what happened already. Donald Trump's going after schools of higher education. First, he cut the legs out from under and cut the balls out from under the Department of Education and put a boot licker in and Linda McMahon in charge of it so there wouldn't be any objection to what he's doing. He then whatever was left of the Department of Education, he had them send out letters that cut off funding. This is all led by Stephen Miller and the Heritage foundation, by the way, in case you were wondering. This is right out of literally out of their playbook. And then under the guise of, and this is the disgusting part for me, under the guise of we're just protecting antisemitism on campus. No, they're not. They're trying to interfere with academic freedom and intellectual and setting intellectual conditions, trying to get them to give in to the Trump administration on hiring, on who they bring into their class, on what they're taught about student powerment and engagement on campus. Yeah, that's not anti Semitism. That's mind control by way of money by the Trump Organization. Now, many universities, including other Ivy leagues, have already capitulated. Ones that are less strong than Harvard, have less money than Harvard, like Columbia and Princeton, just like those law firms that have already given like a billion dollars worth of free legal service to the Trump administration, having done nothing wrong, by the way, only doing what's right under their code of responsibility. But now the fight is over this 9 billion. And so two things have happened. We got Quinn Emanuel, who's representing Harvard along with Austin and Byrd, a firm based in Atlanta. And Quinn Emanuel is very interesting. Hold that thought for a minute while I tell you about this particular lawsuit. So the law firm of Celindi Gay, who I know well, a boutique law firm set up here, they're the ones that are going to have to do the heavy lift for our democracy right now because the big, big law firms are trying to save their profits. Per partner just filed their motion, their complaint assigned to Judge Burroughs, and here's what they said on their preliminary statement seeking a temporary restraining order. This. This is on page one or page 11. Sorry. This case involves an unprecedented threat from the Trump administration to withhold nearly $9 billion in federal funding to one of our nation's leading universities unless it accedes to changes that fundamentally compromise the university's independence and the free speech rights of its faculty and its students. On March 31, defendants announced an investigation into federal grants that support critical research projects at Harvard. Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, you name it, artificial intelligence, other things that make our life better. On April 3, defendants made clear that funding would be terminated if Harvard did not immediately implement a litany of sweeping but vaguely worded demands for changes to the university operations, governance, hiring, hiring, admissions, curriculum and student discipline. Side note Elise Stefanik, who's in Congress in New York, and she's the one that did all the cross examination of the former, now former university heads the last time around after Black Lives Matter. She's a Harvard graduate, but she's got it in for Harvard and so she's also driving this from the congressional side. Defendants actions violate the law in numerous ways, they continue. Let's move over to page 12. Defendants actions violate the First Amendment. The administrative and policy changes defendants seek to coerce Harvard to undertake by holding hostage federal funding are stunning in their breath, intrusiveness and disregard for one of the fixed stars in our constitutional constellation that no official, high or petty, can prescribe. Prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, they continue. Executive branch officials cannot coerce a private university into suppressing academic freedom and free speech by leveraging the vast financial power of the federal government to effectively put a gun to the head of a private university, citing a case for the United States Supreme Court called Sibelius from 2012. Yet that is unquestionably what defendants are doing not only to Harvard, but to at least 60 public and private universities, part of a profoundly undemocratic agenda to impose prevailing political orthodoxy on campuses across the country. The Constitution forbids it. Now we're going to see what Judge Burroughs does, setting up a briefing schedule, and whether she's going to enter that temporary restraining order and ultimately the preliminary injunction to keep the funding coming. And then we're going to see what the United States Supreme Court does. Let me turn to Quinn Emanuel for a minute. Billing your best starts with the right.
- [08:11]
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- [10:18]
Michael Popak
M P.com please support our show and.
- [10:21]
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- [10:26]
Michael Popak
Fascinating that Quinn Emanuel has jumped offside, so to speak and is now opposed to the Trump administration they're representing and they came into the Abrego Garcia case to try to get that poor kidnapped guy illegally deported to El Salvador, rotting for day 31 in an El Salvadoran jail trying to get Quinn Emanuel. Who's Quinn Emanuel? I know that firm well. It's a boutique litigation firm focused on trial and litigation work. It's trial lawyers. Trial lawyers. If I had a case that I needed co counsel to go to battle with me in a trial court on a complex civil matter or criminal matter, I'd want Quinn Emanuel by my side. I saw them in action in my prior life when I was a deputy general counsel, when they actually beat our company in a way, or at least by extension in a Connecticut criminal court. I've seen this before. Now, Quinn Emanuel is very political. Its co head of litigation particularly is a guy who's close to Donald Trump. His name is William Burke. William Burke. They just announced in January Quinn Emanuel, and I've got the announcement right here that he and the Quinn Emanuel firm would be the special ethics advisors to the Trump Organization to make sure that whatever work they're doing is not piggybacking improperly on the emoluments clause and Donald Trump's presidency. We know that's not working very well, but here was the announcement. In an effort to ensure that it continues to abide. This is interesting. This is a Trump organization has a $500 million judgment against it for persistent fraud, a fraudulent company in New York over 10 years. Now it says that to ensure that it continues to abide by the highest ethical standards. You mean start. And avoids any conflicts of interest during the presidency, the company has appointed William A. Burke Global co managing partner of Quinn Emanuel as its new outside ethics advisor and with all of his responsibilities. Now hold that thought because Quinn Emanuel is representing Abrego Garcia now against the Trump administration. And Quinn Emanuel is now representing Harvard along with Alston and Byrd, a firm out of Atlanta, against the Trump administration. They seem to be the go to firm when you got a problem with the Trump administration. Quinn Emanuel is now to the rescue. Get me Quinn Emanuel. Weird. Now, Donald Trump can't technically argue that there is an ethics conflict with Quinn Emanuel, of all things, but it never stopped them before. So I'm waiting for a motion to disqualify Quinn Emanuel. With Trump arguing he's my lawyer over at the Trump Organization, how can he be opposed to the Trump administration? Now, technically, under the ethics rules, this is not a problem, but they have made a business decision that they think it's okay for business to oppose Donald Trump and the Trump administration in major cases. Either Trump is allowing it and they have a side deal to allow Quinn Emanuel to do that, or Quinn Emanuel is Even more courageous than I'm giving them credit for, because at great risk, including this relationship between Burke and Trump, they are going after the Trump administration on these high profile cases. We need the Quinn Emanuels to do this. However they do it. As we watch about a dozen law firms in New York, including many that I know and one that I worked at, bend over and pay Donald Trump a billion dollars in free legal services for having done nothing wrong. The world is dividing in front of us to those who will fight and those who will capitulate. Those who will fight and elbows up and those who will obey. And Quinn Emanuel is leading right now. However they got there, even though the curious case of William Burke. Now, I knew Quinn Emanuel was in the background on some of these things, because when Paul Weiss, the first law firm who settled at what looks to be a bargain, now it's a bargain, they settled at 40 million. The going rate is now 125. And 150 million for law firms to settle with Donald Trump's administration. But when they first settled, the reporting is that William Burke is friends with Trump and his friends with Robert Kraft, and they were gonna use Robert Kraft to contact Trump and try to. And try to cut a deal with, with the Trump administration. And failing that, Quinn Emanuel was going to represent Paul Weiss against the Trump administration. Proving my point. Now, we need to continue to follow all these different aspects. You got Barack Obama, who's come out with his statement in support of Harvard University and by extension, all higher education. You got the universities who are bending over to Donald Trump saying, we stand with Harvard. You know, good, good on you and your $53 billion endowment. You can afford to do this fight. We can't. You've got 900 members of a faculty in Yale joining together to support Harvard, if any. I'll just draw the line in the sand here at the end of this hot take. If any university would be in the proper position, emotionally, morally, academically in the firmament of our higher education, Mount Rushmore, to oppose and defeat Trump, it would be Harvard. If you asked me which university fought back against Donald Trump and led the way and was the first in the first responder, I would say Harvard. You know, and I didn't go to Harvard, just in a matter of full disclosure. I went to nyu, which is probably gonna cut a deal, and I went to Duke, which, you know, for law school, which, you know, who knows what they're gonna do? I hope they don't, but I don't have any control over that particular situation. I'm gonna continue to follow the battle. And it's not just, you know, I wanna make it clear as we end here, it's not just about the parties. It's not. I mean, it is about the Trump part. It's not just about Harvard. This is about a bigger issue, about our constitutional republic, about our democracy, about First Amendment, about what our American flag means and stands for, what being an American means or stands for. If you're not okay with taking our criminals convicted through our criminal justice system and sending them to the dark, dank killer prisons of a foreign country, then you vote against the Republicans. If you're not okay with the President being rogue and flouting, openly defying the rulings of the United States Supreme Court, then you vote against the Republicans and you make them pay at the midterms. If this is not the America that you recognize or that when you tell somebody that you meet on the street when you're traveling that you're an American, that you are not proud of what this president is doing and how he is holding our flag hostage, then you vote against them at the midterms. It's that simple. It is cause and effect. It is binary. The light is on or the light is off. You're either a patriot that defends the Constitution the way our founding fathers and framers wanted it, or you're on their side. That's it. And we're here to follow it here on the Midas Touch Network. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button on the Midas Touch Network as they make their drive for 5 million. And I'm over on Legal AFMTN every day, every way, curating that channel from Midas Touch and me and us with 12 collaborators and we're on our drive for 1 million before our one year anniversary. And that's all because of you. There is no hotter corner than the intersection of law and politics right now. And we're bringing you what you need. Come on over there. Hit the free subscribe button. So until my next all things legal AF podcast or YouTube channel or hot take on Michael Popak reporting. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories the intersection of law and Politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AFMTN. That's @legal AFMTN.