A US District Judge in Boston has ordered the federal government to cover a university association’s legal fees after the group won a court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from capping some reimbursements related to defense research.
Background
The Association of American Universities (AAU) and other plaintiffs sued the US Department of Defense in May 2025 after the department said it would cap at 15% the rate at which universities can be reimbursed for indirect costs of funded research. The AAU argued that the new policy was unlawful.
The judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the reimbursement cap in June 2025 and entered judgment for the AAU and other plaintiffs in December. The US appealed but then dropped it.
The judge ruled that the AAU’s fee award was warranted because the Defense Department’s policy was not substantially justified. The department had pointed to similar rate caps announced by the National Institutes of Health and US Department of Energy as a basis for its own policy, but ignored that those rate caps were also blocked by other judges.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
