Harvard University sued the Trump administration April 12 after the government froze its federal funding and made threats against the university’s tax-exempt status.
The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of withholding vital funding and grant money in a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the First Amendment. According to the Harvard Crimson, Title VI requires due process before the government can use it to revoke federal funding.
The Trump administration claims these actions are a response to antisemitism on the university’s campus. The federal government sent a letter to Harvard in March warning that the school would be investigated if it did not take action against antisemitism on campus. In response, the university said it “enhanced training and education on antisemitism across our campus” and enacted “measures to support our Jewish community and ensure student safety and security.”
Harvard received another letter April 11 saying the school had not done enough to combat antisemitism. The letter demanded the school make immediate policy changes or face a loss of federal funding; among other demands, the government instructed Harvard to eliminate their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and impose a mask ban during protests.
“Doubling down on the letter’s sweeping and intrusive demands — which would impose unprecedented and improper control over the University — the government has, in addition to the initial freeze of $2.2 billion in funding, considered taking steps to freeze an additional $1 billion in grants, initiated numerous investigations of Harvard’s operations, threatened the education of international students, and announced that it is considering a revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status,” wrote Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, in an April 21 statement.
“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.
An anonymous source from Trump’s antisemitism task force claimed to the New York Times that the letter was sent in error. Harvard continues to stress that the funding freezes have no justifiable basis and are “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”
“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 states.
Despite having an endowment of more than $50 million, Harvard says that due to its widespread influence on the economy and its partnerships with smaller agencies, losing federal funding will cause large disruptions in more than just university politics.
“The freeze creates a ripple effect extending beyond Harvard’s campus by stifling job creation in the research sector across the nation, reducing intellectual property development, and delaying scientific and medical advances that boost the national economy,” the lawsuit states.
The case is currently before Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Burroughs, appointed in 2014 by President Barrack Obama, ruled in favor of Harvard’s race-conscious admissions in a 2019 case, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2023.
Harvard said it continues to reject the Trump administration’s demands, but Garber stressed the university’s commitment to fighting all forms of bigotry. “We will continue to fight hate with the urgency it demands as we fully comply with our obligations under the law,” he wrote. “That is not only our legal responsibility. It is our moral imperative.”
