Harvard University has appeared in federal court, challenging $2.6 billion in funding cuts by the Trump administration.

Burroughs, 64, a Boston native, was appointed to the federal bench in 2014 by President Barack Obama. Since then, she's overseen high profile cases, including Trump's 2017 Muslim travel ban and the Harvard admissions lawsuit.

Harvard challenges Trump's $2.6 billion research funding cuts in court, arguing the freeze violates First Amendment rights and threatens cancer research and security efforts.

A Massachusetts judge hasn't ruled on Harvard's lawsuit against the Trump administration, but she did make some pointed comments on Monday.

The Trump administration’s legal case for cutting nearly $3 billion in federal aid to Harvard University was met with skepticism.

Attorneys for Harvard asked a federal judge Monday to prevent the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from the school.

“They’ve realized that they can take a bit of a step further, that they can advance their policy priorities through those levers they have through the state university system,” said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow who studies higher education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Harvard University was back in court Monday for a major hearing in its funding fight case against the Trump administration, a key step in a battle over restoring more than $2 billion in federal funding for research frozen by the White House this spring.