Harvard University has sued the US President Donald Trump administration over freezing federal funding.
According to CNN, as the tension between the elite institution and federal government escalated, the university on Monday, April 21, 2025, filed a lawsuit against Trump administration for freezing $2.2 billion (£1.7 billion) in funding and threatened the university's tax-exempt status.
University President Alan M. Garber, in a letter to the Harvard community, said that the recent actions “have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world.”
What does the lawsuit say?
Harvard wrote in the lawsuit, “Under whatever name, the government has ceased the flow of funds to Harvard as part of its pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the government’s control over its academic programmes. That, in itself, violates Harvard’s constitutional rights.”
“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,” it added.
The university also described the government action against the institutions as unlawful and a violation of Harvard’s constitutional rights under the First Amendment and its rights guaranteed by statute and regulation.
Why has the Trump administration frozen Harvard University funding?
The federal funding of the university froze after it rejected the Trump administration demand to give them access to all university reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus generated since October 2023.
White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields stated on Monday evening, “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.”
Notably, Harvard is the first elite US university that has publicly rejected the White House demands which Trump officials cited as necessary to combat antisemitism after contentious campus protests.
