A federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump's move to ban foreign students from traveling to the United States to attend Harvard University.

Axar.az reports, citing CBS news, the ruling came just hours after the Ivy League school called the policy illegal retaliation for Harvard's rejection of White House demands.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard's request for a temporary restraining order. In a brief ruling, Burroughs barred the Trump administration from implementing the new policy.

In an amended complaint filed earlier Thursday, the university called the president's action an end-run around a previous court order by Burroughs last month, which blocked the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard's ability to host foreign students.

The filing attacked Trump's legal justification for the action — a federal law allowing him to block a "class of aliens" deemed detrimental to the nation's interests. Targeting only those who are coming to the U.S. to study at Harvard doesn't qualify as a "class of aliens," Harvard said in its filing.

"The President's actions thus are not undertaken to protect the 'interests of the United States,' but instead to pursue a government vendetta against Harvard," the university wrote.