Harvard University announced on Monday that it has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that it unlawfully froze billions of dollars in federal funding.
Harvard President Alan Garber announced the suit in a letter to the Harvard community, stating that the university is taking action after the Trump administration announced an initial $2.2 billion funding freeze and later indicated its intention to suspend an additional $1 billion in grants.
The lawsuit follows 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.”
Following Harvard’s announcement, the Trump administration moved to freeze $2.2 billion in grants for Harvard, while Mr. Trump 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,” according to Garber.
The lawsuit claims that the Trump administration violated Harvard’s constitutional rights by withholding federal funds, claiming that the withholding was “part of its pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the Government’s control over its academic programmes.”
“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 complaint asserts.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Harvard is not the only university under pressure from the Trump administration, which has stated that it will take action against some schools to combat anti-Semitism on campus.
Last month, the administration threatened to cancel $400 million in grants and contracts for 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 totalling $1.8 billion.
However, the battle between Harvard and the Trump administration has grown far more public and heated than those at other universities. Aside from the funding cut, the Trump administration threatened to prevent the Massachusetts university from accepting international students.
The White House also called for broad leadership reforms at the university and changes to admissions policies.
Harvard officials portray the Trump administration’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League institution, but also to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities. Harvard presents a significant challenge to the White House’s efforts to force change at universities that Republicans claim have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.
Harvard alleges in its lawsuit that the Trump administration “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 based on race, colour, or national origin in federally funded programmes.
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,” according to Garber. “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.”