Harvard University sues federal government over funding cuts

In the latest action in the escalating battle between Harvard University and the Trump administration, the university announced on Monday that it had filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming the freezing of billions of dollars in federal grants is unlawful.

The suit was announced by the university’s president, Alan M. Garber, in a letter to the university community, stating that the $2 billion funding freeze would harm critical disease research, per BBC.

The action followed a letter the Trump administration wrote to Harvard on April 11, demanding broad government and leadership reforms and changes to admissions policies, according to The Associated Press. The letter also called for the university to audit views of diversity on campus and to stop recognizing some student clubs.

The Trump administration also wants Harvard to produce its long-awaited report on antisemitism on campus, according to The Free Press.

President Donald Trump has accused multiple universities, including Harvard, of failing to protect Jewish students during campus protests against the war in Gaza in 2024, per BBC. Harvard was sued by Jewish students over antisemitic incidents on campus. The university settled with the students in January.

Garber said the university would not bend to the administration’s demands, and then, hours later, the government froze billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard. The government also sought to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and it threatened to block the university from enrolling international students if certain student records were not turned over.

Harvard’s lawsuit, which is against multiple federal agencies, was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, per The Washington Post. It seeks to block the Trump administration from freezing federal funding “as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard.”

“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 says, according to the AP.

“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,” it continues.

Harvard’s suit said the funding freeze violated its First Amendment rights and the statutory provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. It also called the funding freeze “arbitrary and capricious.”

Responding to the lawsuit, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields wrote in an email on Monday, “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. Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege,” per the AP.

Harvard has said that the government’s demands are not only a threat to it but to the autonomy that has long been granted to American universities by the Supreme Court.

“Today, we stand for the values that have made American higher education a beacon for the world,” Garber wrote to the Harvard community, per the AP.

According to The Washington Post, the lawsuit was filed against the departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Energy and Defense, as well as the General Services Administration, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and the leaders of the agencies.