Harvard sues Trump administration over funds freeze

by David Voreacos and Janet Lorin

Harvard University sued several US agencies and top officials for freezing billions of dollars in federal funding, significantly ratcheting up a high-stakes showdown with the Trump administration.

The government unlawfully suspended Harvard’s funding after it refused to comply with “unconstitutional demands” to overhaul governance, discipline and hiring policies, as well as diversity programs, lawyers for the university argued in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts. The Trump administration has accused the nation’s oldest and richest university of failing to combat antisemitism on campus.

“Over the course of the past week, the federal government has taken several actions following Harvard’s refusal to comply with its illegal demands,” the university’s president Alan Garber said. “We filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”

In his statement posted on the university’s website, Garber cited the Trump administration’s pause on $2.2 billion in federal funding, threats to block an additional $1.1 billion in grants, a crackdown on foreign students, and the possible revocation of Harvard’s tax-exempt status. 

The Trump administration is pushing for sweeping changes at the most elite US universities, and has frozen or is reviewing federal funding to Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Columbia universities. At Harvard, the government halted $2.2 billion of multi-year grants to on April 14, claiming the school failed to enforce civil rights laws to protect Jewish students.

Harvard’s lawsuit claims that the funding freeze violates its First Amendment guarantee of free speech and the Administrative Procedures Act. It asks a judge to bar the US from freezing the funding and declare the government’s actions unconstitutional. 

“The government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation,” the lawsuit claims.

The White House and the Education Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump escalated his fight with Harvard after the school refused to bow to his administration’s demands. Since threatening its funding, Trump suggested the Internal Revenue Service should tax the university as a “political entity.” Senior administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have criticized tax breaks given to the school’s $53 billion endowment.

Government Demands

The showdown began last month when the government threatened about $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard. Days later, the administration demanded that Harvard remake its governance, transform admissions and faculty hiring, stop admitting international students hostile to US values and enforce viewpoint diversity. 

The government also called for scrapping any hiring preferences based on race or national origin, adopting a broad ban on masks and adding oversight for “biased programs that fuel antisemitism.” 

Harvard rejected those demands on April 14, saying it “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” and that a private university “cannot allow itself to be taken over” by the US government.

“The government has only ratcheted up cuts to funding, investigations, and threats that will hurt students from every state in the country and around the world, as well as research that improves the lives of millions of Americans,” the complaint claims.

Without the funding, the school said in its complaint that it will be forced to either reduce or halt ongoing research projects and terminate employment contracts with researchers, staff, and administrators, or make other cuts to departments or programs.

Campuses across the US were roiled by protests after Hamas, which the US considers a terrorist organization, murdered 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages in October 2023. Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Other university leaders, including Princeton’s, have expressed support for Harvard’s stance, but they also face pressure from the White House. The administration has already canceled $400 million in federal money to Columbia University and frozen dozens of research contracts at Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern universities. 

“All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: allow the government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution’s ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions,” Harvard argued in its lawsuit.

Harvard named several cabinet secretaries in the lawsuit, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose agency, Health and Human Services, funds the most research, as well as other agencies including the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

As part of its legal team, Harvard has hired two conservative lawyers with connections to the Trump administration - William Burck and Robert Hur. Harvard also hired a lobbying firm, Ballard Partners, where Trump’s chief of staff used to be a partner. The school also placed John Manning, a conservative lawyer, as its permanent provost, the second-most powerful leadership role at the university where he will oversee academic policies. 

The case is President and Fellows of Harvard College v. US Department of Health and Human Services et al, 25-cv-11048, US District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).

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