Harvard University on Monday said it has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that it unlawfully froze billions in federal funding.
In announcing the suit, Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the Harvard community that the university is taking action after the Trump administration announced an initial funding freeze of $2.2 billion and later signaled its intention to suspend an additional $1 billion in grants.
The lawsuit comes after weeks of escalation between the Trump administration and Harvard, which had rejected the administration’s demands to change many of the school’s policies and leadership, including auditing the student body and faculty for “viewpoint diversity.” After Harvard announced its decision, the Trump administration moved to freeze $2.2 billion in grants for Harvard, while Mr. Trump had suggested the IRS strip Harvard of its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
“These actions have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers and the standing of American higher education in the world,” Garber wrote.
The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration violated Harvard’s constitutional rights by halting federal funding, claiming that the withholding of funds “part of its pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the Government’s control over its academic programs.”
“Defendants’ actions threaten Harvard’s academic independence and place at risk critical lifesaving and pathbreaking research that occurs on its campus. And they are part of a broader effort by the Government to punish Harvard for protecting its constitutional rights,” the lawsuit claims.
The Trump administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Harvard isn’t the only university facing pressure from the Trump administration, which has said it is taking action against some schools to ensure they combat anti-semitism on campuses.
The administration threatened last month to cancel $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Cornell and Northwestern are also facing funding freezes totaling a combined $1.8 billion.
Yet the battle between Harvard and the Trump administration has become far more public and heated than those at other universities. Aside from the funding stoppage, the Trump administration also threatened to block the Massachusetts university from enrolling international students.
The White House also called for broad leadership reforms at the university and changes to admissions policies.
Harvard leaders frame the Trump administration’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but also to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities. For the White House, Harvard presents a major hurdle in its effort to force change at universities that Republicans claim have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.
In its suit, Harvard alleges the Trump administration also “failed to engage in the statutorily mandated process Congress required under Title VI before funds are cut off, which provides independent grounds for declaring the freeze unlawful.”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin from programs that receive federal funding.
Harvard’s complaint against the Trump administration also claims the halt in federal funding will impede critical scientific and medical research as well as diminish economic innovation.
“The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” Garber wrote. “Research that the government has put in jeopardy includes efforts to improve the prospects of children who survive cancer, to understand at the molecular level how cancer spreads throughout the body, to predict the spread of infectious disease outbreaks, and to ease the pain of soldiers wounded on the battlefield.”
contributed to this report.
