Harvard University sued the Trump administration on Monday after the federal government said it was freezing $2.2 billion in grants and sought what university officials described as “unprecedented and improper” control over the Ivy League institution.
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“The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a message Monday announcing the lawsuit.
The suit, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, accuses the administration of flouting the First Amendment and other federal laws and regulations. The 51-page complaint asks a federal judge in Massachusetts to declare the president’s “freeze order” unconstitutional and to order the government to reverse any terminations of — or freezes to — federal funding.
Last week, the Trump administration announced that it was freezing federal funding after the school refused to accept demands that the administration has said aim to address antisemitism on campus.
Among the government’s demands were an audit of student body views and a ban on international students who are “hostile to the American values and institutions.”
In Monday’s suit, the university argued that the funding freeze is not related to the administration’s antisemitism concerns.
“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 said. “Nor has the Government acknowledged the significant consequences that the indefinite freeze of billions of dollars in federal research funding will have on Harvard’s research programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the national interest in furthering American innovation and progress.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
After Harvard said it would not comply with the administration, President Donald Trump suggested the university should lose its tax-exempt status — a move that could have severe repercussions for the school.
Harvard has said the government has no legal basis to rescind its status.
The escalating battle between Harvard and the federal government comes amid a broader effort from the administration to target what it describes as a failure to deal with antisemitism on college campuses.
Last month, Columbia University agreed to a list of administration demands after the government said it would cut $400 million in funding over “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
The administration also hit Princeton University with $4 million in cuts in part for promoting what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described as “climate anxiety” through a lab that develops atmospheric and oceanic models. The school was one of several universities to sue the administration last week over what the lawsuit said was a “flagrantly unlawful” move to cut research funding.
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