Remember Massachusetts District Court Judge Allison Burroughs? She wrote the opinion finding that Harvard engaged in no discrimination against Asian students and minimized the effect of some damning Admission Office emails. The Supreme Court roundly rejected her findings of facts in Students for Fair Admissions. As Justice Sotomayor pointed out in dissent, Chief Justice Roberts failed to "review the District Court's careful fact-finding with the deference it owes to the trial court." With good reason.
Fast forward to the Trump Administration. By luck of the draw, Judge Burroughs was assigned Harvard's funding case against the executive branch. Judge Burroughs issued an ex parte TRO in the funding case so quickly, that she could not have possibly even read the briefs. Judge Burroughs was also assigned the Harvard student visa case. How random? And she issued another immediate ex parte TRO. Not to be outdone, Boston Judge Talwani issued an immediate ex parte TRO in favor of Planned Parenthood, blocking the funding provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
What is going on with Boston? Is there something in the Charles River?
