Harvard sues Trump administration, escalating fight over funding

David Voreacos and Janet Lorin, Bloomberg News on Apr 21, 2025

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Harvard University said it sued the U.S. government for freezing billions of dollars in federal funding, ratcheting up a showdown with the Trump administration.

The Trump administration unlawfully suspended Harvard’s funding after it refused to comply with “illegal demands” to overhaul governance, discipline and hiring policies, as well as diversity programs, university President Alan Garber said in a statement. The government has accused the nation’s oldest — and richest — university of failing to combat antisemitism on campus.

“Over the course of the past week, the federal government has taken several actions following Harvard’s refusal to comply with its illegal demands,” Garber said. “We filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”

In his statement posted on the university’s website, Garber cited the Trump administration’s freeze of $2.2 billion in federal funding, threats to block an additional $1.1 billion in grants, a crackdown on foreign students, and the possible revocation of Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The lawsuit, which Harvard said it filed in federal court in Massachusetts, wasn’t immediately available through the online court system.

The Trump administration is pushing for sweeping changes at the most elite U.S. universities, and has frozen or is reviewing federal funding to Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Columbia universities. At Harvard, the government halted $2.2 billion of multiyear grants on April 14, claiming the school failed to enforce civil rights laws to protect Jewish students.

Harvard’s lawsuit claims that the funding freeze violates its First Amendment guarantee of free speech and the Administrative Procedures Act. It asks a judge to bar the U.S. from freezing the funding and declare the government’s actions unconstitutional.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump escalated his fight with Harvard after the school refused to bow to his administration’s demands. Since threatening its funding, Trump suggested the Internal Revenue Service should tax the university as a “political entity.” Senior administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have criticized tax breaks given to the school’s $53 billion endowment.

Government demands

The showdown began last month when the government threatened about $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard. Days later, the administration demanded that Harvard remake its governance, transform admissions and faculty hiring, stop admitting international students hostile to U.S. values and enforce viewpoint diversity.

The government also called for scrapping any hiring preferences based on race or national origin, adopting a broad ban on masks and adding oversight for “biased programs that fuel antisemitism.”

Harvard rejected those demands on April 14, saying it “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” and that a private university “cannot allow itself to be taken over” by the U.S. government.

“The government has only ratcheted up cuts to funding, investigations, and threats that will hurt students from every state in the country and around the world, as well as research that improves the lives of millions of Americans,” the complaint claims.

Campuses across the U.S. were roiled by protests after Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, murdered 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages in October 2023. Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Other university leaders, including Princeton’s, have expressed support for Harvard’s stance, but they also face pressure from the White House. The administration has already canceled $400 million in federal money to Columbia University and frozen dozens of research contracts at Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern universities.

To lead its legal strategy, Harvard has hired two conservative lawyers with connections to the Trump administration — William Burck and Robert Hur. It also hired a lobbying firm, Ballard Partners, tied to Trump’s chief of staff and placed a conservative lawyer in a powerful leadership role.

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(With assistance from Sarah McGregor.)

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