Harvard sues Trump administration over attacks on school funding
Harvard University has sued the Trump administration, accusing it of unlawfully threatening the school's "academic independence" and "pathbreaking research."
The lawsuit comes after the Trump administration announced it was freezing $2.2 billion in funding to the elite school, which resisted demands to ban masks and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
"This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking at Harvard," the university said in its lawsuit.
The White House and Justice Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit, which was filed April 21 in a Massachusetts federal court, says the government violated Harvard's First Amendment right to free speech by freezing the $2.2 billion and threatening additional cuts. Harvard can't freely make decisions on faculty hiring, academic programs, and student admissions as a result of the threats, it said.
"In other words, the Government wielded the threat of withholding federal funds in an attempt to coerce Harvard to conform with the Government’s preferred mix of viewpoints and ideologies," according to the lawsuit.
Harvard resists Trump demand letter
In an April 11 letter to Harvard, Trump administration officials listed a range of demands to meet if the university wanted to avoid funding cuts, including commissioning a government-approved auditor to ensure that every university department, field and teaching unit is "individually viewpoint diverse."
Trump officials also demanded the university stop any preferential hiring or admissions treatment on the basis of race, sex, religion or nationality. And they said Harvard needed to hire a separate government-approved auditor to look into potential antisemitic harassment amid protests against Israeli military actions in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In a statement accompanying the lawsuit, Harvard President Alan M. Garber said that there are "valid concerns about rising antisemitism" and that the university would soon be releasing reports on both anti-Israeli and anti-Palestinian bias.
"Harvard takes that work seriously," he said. However, the administration hadn't engaged with the school about how it will continue to fight antisemitism, he added.
"Instead, the government’s April 11 demands seek to control whom we hire and what we teach," Garber said.
This story has been updated with additional information.