Harvard sues Trump administration. What the lawsuit says

Harvard University has filed a lawsuit at a federal court in Massachusetts against the Trump administration, soon after the latter froze $2.2 billion in funding. In a major escalation, the university has accused the administration of trying to "gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard".

The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration forces charges at the university over over the treatment of Jewish students during protests of the Israel-Gaza war that roiled campuses across the country last year. The administration claimed it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and demanded that Harvard comply with a list of demands that included appointing an outside overseer to ensure that the viewpoints being taught at the university were “diverse”.

However, in the lawsuit, Harvard alleged that the actions were following its refusal to comply with its "illegal demands".  

Harvard President Alan Garber said the university chose to challenge the "unreasonable demands from an administration antisemitism task force to control whom we hire and what we teach." He added that the Trump administration was aiming to impose unprecedented and improper control over the university.”

"The government has, in addition to the initial freeze of $2.2bn in funding, considered taking steps to freeze an additional $1bn in grants, initiated numerous investigations of Harvard’s operations, threatened the education of international students, and announced that it is considering a revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status," Garber wrote.

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

The White House responded to the lawsuit stating that 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."

What the complaint says

In the lawsuit, Harvard alleges that the First Amendment protects free speech against government interference intended to enforce ideological balance and bars the government from using legal sanctions or other coercion to suppress speech it doesn’t like.

The lawsuit argues that the government’s freeze-first strategy violated laws which stipulate that an official hearing be carried out after findings. "Then, only 30 days after the findings are released can funding be terminated. These fatal procedural shortcomings are compounded by the arbitrary and capricious nature of Defendants’ abrupt and indiscriminate decision,” the lawsuit said.

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