Harvard sues Trump administration over ‘illegal demands’
After seeing billions of dollars in research funding frozen and facing multiple federal demands for internal reform, Harvard University is suing the Trump administration under the claim that it has violated the school’s First Amendment rights.
On April 14, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was freezing $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded federal grants to the school, as The Center Square reported. The decision followed Harvard’s refusal to comply with the Trump administration’s demands that it more effectively curb unlawful student activity and reform any programs “with egregious records of antisemitism or other bias.”
In its lawsuit filed late Monday, the school argued that the administration’s funding freeze violates Harvard’s constitutional free speech rights by withdrawing federal funding “as part of its pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the Government’s control over its academic programs.”
The suit also argues that the administration bypassed the congressionally mandated process under Title VI that requires revoking federal funding due to discrimination concerns to be used as a last resort.
“Before taking punitive action, the law requires that the federal government engage with us about the ways we are fighting and will continue to fight antisemitism,” Harvard University President Alan Garber said in a statement. “Instead, the government’s April 11 demands seek to control whom we hire and what we teach.”
Garber acknowledged that while Harvard has “unfinished business” regarding antisemitic bias in its programs and on its campus, it is taking active steps to remedy the problem.
He added that Harvard will “soon release” reports from its Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias and its Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias.
