Harvard sues Trump administration over $2.2B US grant freeze

The Associated Press

· Posted: Apr 21, 2025 5:36 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

Harvard University announced Monday that it was suing the Trump medication to halt a frost connected much than $2.2 cardinal US successful grants aft the instauration said it would defy the Trump administration's demands to bounds activism connected campus.

In a missive to Harvard earlier this month, Trump's medication had called for wide authorities and enactment reforms astatine the university, arsenic good arsenic changes to its admissions policies. It besides demanded the assemblage audit views of diverseness connected campus, and halt recognizing immoderate pupil clubs.

Harvard President Alan Garber said the assemblage would not crook to the government's demands. Hours later, the authorities froze billions of dollars successful national funding.

"The Government has not — and cannot — place immoderate rational transportation betwixt antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and different probe it has frozen that aims to prevention American lives, foster American success, sphere American security, and support America's presumption arsenic a planetary person successful innovation," the assemblage wrote successful its lawsuit.

"Nor has the Government acknowledged the important consequences that the indefinite frost of billions of dollars successful national probe backing volition person connected Harvard's probe programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the nationalist involvement successful furthering American innovation and progress," the lawsuit said.

Government missive called for Harvard enactment changes

The Trump administration, successful the April 11 letter, told Harvard to enforce tougher subject connected protesters and to surface planetary students for those who are "hostile to the American values."

It besides called for wide enactment reforms astatine the university, changes to admissions policies and the removal of assemblage designation for immoderate pupil clubs. The authorities besides demanded Harvard audit its module and pupil assemblage to guarantee wide viewpoints successful each section and, if necessary, diversify by admitting further students and hiring caller faculty.

Last Monday, Harvard said it would not comply, citing the First Amendment.

The pursuing day, Trump took to his Truth Social platform, questioning whether the assemblage should suffer its tax-exempt presumption "if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and violent inspired/supporting 'Sickness?' "

The Trump medication besides threatened to artifact the assemblage from enrolling planetary students.

Demands endanger autonomy of universities, Harvard says

The assemblage frames the government's demands arsenic a menace not lone to the Ivy League school, but to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has agelong granted American universities.

For the Trump administration, Harvard presents the archetypal large hurdle successful its effort to unit alteration astatine universities that Republicans accidental person go hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.

The struggle is straining the longstanding narration betwixt the national authorities and universities that usage national wealth to substance technological breakthroughs. Long seen arsenic a payment to the greater good, that wealth has go an casual root of leverage for the Trump administration.

"Today, we basal for the values that person made American higher acquisition a beacon for the world," Garber wrote Monday to the Harvard community.

"We basal for the information that colleges and universities crossed the state tin clasp and grant their ineligible obligations and champion fulfill their indispensable relation successful nine without improper authorities intrusion," helium wrote.

"That is however we execute world excellence, safeguard unfastened enquiry and state of speech, and behaviour pioneering probe — and however we beforehand the boundless exploration that propels our federation and its radical into a amended future."