Harvard filed the case in response to the administration's attempt to slash billions of dollars in government funding to the university to compel it to meet a set of demands.
As part of a campaign against the country's best universities, Harvard, the richest institution in the world, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, retaliating against its threats to cut billions of dollars from the university's research funding.
The lawsuit marked a significant uptick in the continuing conflict between President Trump, who has promised to "reclaim" prestigious universities, and higher education. In addition to targeting programs and instruction about racial diversity and gender issues, the administration has framed its campaign as a battle against antisemitism.
It gave Harvard a list of demands earlier this month, including hiring an outside monitor to ensure academic departments were "viewpoint diverse," reporting to the federal government any overseas students accused of wrongdoing, and evaluating professors for plagiarism.
In a statement released Monday, Harvard President Alan M. Garber charged that the government was attempting to exercise "unprecedented and improper control." According to Dr. Garber, the government's actions would have "severe and long-lasting" repercussions.
Harvard and other universities have been accused by the Trump administration of allowing antisemitic harassment and speech to continue unchecked on their campuses. According to Monday's lawsuit, the government had justified its "illegal action" by pointing to the university's response to antisemitism.
"As a Jew and as an American, I know very well that there are valid concerns about rising antisemitism," Dr. Garber stated in his statement. However, he asserted that the government had a legal obligation to discuss the university's antisemitism efforts with it. Rather, the government has attempted to regulate "whom we hire and what we teach," he claimed.
The government is accused of launching a wide-ranging assault as "leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard" in the case, which was filed in a federal court in Massachusetts. Other significant universities that have experienced sudden financial cuts are also included.
Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi, General Services Administration acting administrator Stephen Ehikian, Education Secretary Linda M. McMahon, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and several other administration officials are named as defendants in the case.
In an emailed statement in response to the complaint, White House spokesman Harrison Fields said, "The gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard, which enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families is coming to an end."
"Harvard does not meet the basic conditions required to access taxpayer funds, which are a privilege," he continued.
The Trump administration has also threatened to stop granting international students visas to Harvard in the last week after the university refused to comply with its demands.
Additionally, according to two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, government authorities want to freeze an extra $1 billion in research funds to Harvard. The National Institutes of Health, the country's principal organization for biomedical and public health research, provided the majority of the funding, according to the officials.
According to Harvard authorities, the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which depends on federal research funds for almost half of its overall budget, will be significantly impacted by the funding block. This previous week, the school announced significant financial cuts.
The Trump administration has vowed to look into dozens of institutions and has already taken steps to withdraw billions of dollars in federal money from a number of them, including Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, and Northwestern, using accusations of antisemitism as leverage.
In a letter dated April 14, Harvard informed the administration that it would not comply with demands it claimed were illegal. The Trump administration then implemented a funding freeze as a result. The school's federally supported research initiatives investigating radiation poisoning, A.L.S., and tuberculosis were immediately halted due to the freeze.
In a letter to the community last month, Dr. Garber stated, "The university will not give up its autonomy or its constitutional rights."
Three days prior, an antisemitism task force created by the Trump administration had sent a list of requests to Harvard, which the university responded to in a letter on April 14. The list of demands was accidentally sent, according to several administration officials. However, Dr. Garber stated on Monday that "their actions suggest otherwise."
The Trump administration allegedly violated the First Amendment by attempting to limit what Harvard faculty members might teach students, according to the 51-page lawsuit. Citing a 1969 Supreme Court ruling defending high school students' First Amendment rights, the complaint contends that the classroom is "a piquely marketplace of ideas' that the First Amendment is intended to protect."
The government "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," according to the complaint.
The university's decision to sue is praised by those academics who had urged Harvard to fight the administration's intrusion.
Professor of political science Ryan Enos assisted in drafting a letter that was signed by over 800 faculty members pleading with the university to challenge Mr. Trump's demands in court. "This should be a larger signal not just to education but to civil society that what the Trump administration is doing is unlawful," he said of Harvard's lawsuit.
Students on campus responded to Dr. Garber's email announcing the lawsuit with ecstasy.
The degree of school spirit, according to Texas sophomore Lorenzo Ruiz, is comparable to the pride Harvard students display during the school's yearly football game against Yale. In addition to the backing of students, he said, "The university has really managed to tap into and inspire a massive segment of the nation that is deeply concerned by federal meddling."
"We applaud Harvard for taking this step and look forward to a clear and unambiguous statement by the court rebuking efforts to undermine scholarship and science," said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a sizable association of colleges.
Harvard hired two attorneys with connections to Mr. Trump and the administration to represent the university. One of them, William A. Burck, has advised the Trump Organization on external ethics. During Mr. Trump's first term, Robert K. Hur, the other, was employed at the Justice Department. Additionally, Mr. Hur was named special counsel to look into how President Joseph R. Biden Jr. handled sensitive papers.
Harvard's legal actions were in line with the strategy that many lawyers and higher education officials who were not connected to the university had anticipated in recent days.
In many ways, the main emphasis of Harvard's complaint is its belief that the Trump administration's attempt to control campus life is an infringement on the First Amendment. However, the university also accuses the government of ignoring established timetables and processes for civil rights disputes.
Harvard administrators appear to be betting on the notion that the government’s efforts will drive the case toward a rapid resolution. In its case, the institution pleaded for an order "expediting the resolution of this action" from the Federal District Court in Massachusetts.
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