Harvard Files Suit In Challenge To Trump Administration's Funding Cuts

Harvard University filed suit Monday against the Trump administration, challenging its decision to cut more than $2 billion in grants in a high-profile showdown between the government and the prestigious educational institution.

Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement announcing the suit that the university chose to challenge what it considered unreasonable demands from an administration antisemitism task force to “to control whom we hire and what we teach."

The administration's demands, he said, "would impose unprecedented and improper control over the university" and came without any real effort to engage on the issue of antisemitism, he said.

The administration had no immediate comment on the suit, which was filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

The Trump administration has threatened to withhold up to $9 billion in grants to the university over the treatment of Jewish students that it says violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, including during protests of the Israel-Gaza war that roiled campuses across the country last year.

Already, the administration has pulled more than $2 billion in federal funding from the school and is considering pulling $1 billion more in grants.

In addition, the Internal Revenue Service is scrutinizing the university’s tax-exempt status, and the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, who make up about 27 percent of its total enrollment.

“These actions have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world,” Garber said.