BOSTON — Harvard University is fighting back against the Trump administration with a lawsuit challenging the White House’s decision to freeze federal funding for the elite school.
In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Harvard’s lawyers said the decision by the Trump administration’s joint anti-semitism task force to hold back $2.2 billion in funding from the university was “arbitrary and capricious” and violated its First Amendment rights and the statutory provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
“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,” they wrote.
The university’s lawyers said the Trump administration hasn’t “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 Trump administration responded to the lawsuit with a fiery statement declaring that the “gravy train of federal assistance” is “coming to an end” for Harvard and other U.S. colleges and universities that “enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families.”
“Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege,” the White House said.
The legal showdown comes after Harvard last week rejected a list of demands that the Trump administration said was designed to curb diversity initiatives and fight anti-semitism at the Ivy League school.
In an April 11 letter, the Trump administration called on Harvard to implement reforms at the university and make changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university eliminate its diversity programming and curtail student demonstrations on campus. Trump has also threatened to cancel Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
But Harvard President Alan Garber has rejected the White House’s demands, calling them “coercive” and beyond the scope of federal authority.
Harvard has more than $9 billion in current and pledged federal grants and contracts, much of it devoted to scientific and medical research, according to the university.
While the university has an endowment of $53 billion, which could help cushion cuts, Garber said the federal funding cuts are “slamming on the brakes” on research in childhood cancer, infectious disease outbreaks and other work.
“The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” he said in a statement. “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.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.