The Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors, along with the national organization, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its demanded policy changes while reviewing nearly $9 billion in federal funding.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in conjunction with a request from the professors for an immediate temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration from cutting off Harvard University’s federal funding, according to the filings.
The university received a letter from a federal task force earlier this month outlining policy demands tied to nearly $9 billion in federal funding, a university spokesperson confirmed to CNN. Among the demands outlined in the letter are the elimination of Harvard’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a ban on masks at campus protests, The Harvard Crimson, a student-run newspaper, and other outlets reported.
The review is the latest effort of a federal task force to combat antisemitism on college campuses after a spate of high-profile incidents around the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“This case involves an unprecedented threat from the Trump administration to withhold nearly nine billion dollars in federal funding to one of our nation’s leading universities unless it accedes to changes that fundamentally compromise the university’s independence and the free speech rights of its faculty and students,” the lawsuit states.
It also alleges the Trump administration’s actions violate the First Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination under federally assisted programs on grounds of race, color or national origin, according to the federal law.
CNN has reached out to the White House for a statement in response to the filings.
Cancellation of federal funding is ‘imminent,’ suit says
The demands in the administration’s letter also include “full cooperation” with the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces immigration policy, and federal regulators to ensure “full compliance,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Crimson.
The letter was received days after the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the US General Services Administration announced they are reviewing $8.7 billion in grants and more than $255 million worth of contracts between Harvard, its affiliates and the federal government, according to a news release.
“Executive branch officials cannot coerce a private university into suppressing academic freedom and free speech,” the lawsuit says, “by leveraging the vast financial power of the federal government to effectively put ‘a gun to the head’ of a private university.”
The lawsuit says the cancellation of federal funding “is imminent,” citing how the Trump administration already slashed the federal funding of other higher education institutions such as Columbia University, which was the first college that saw $400 million in cuts to federal funding.
Columbia then announced sweeping policy changes in late March, making apparent concessions to the Trump administration.
The professors filing suit said the federal government has declared entire programs and departments “must alter their curriculum and research agendas to shift toward the government’s preferred viewpoint and ideology, and those in violation must be shut down.”
The complaint against the Trump administration’s review says its actions have “already caused severe and irreparable harm by halting academic research and inquiry at Harvard, including areas that have no relation whatsoever to charges of antisemitism or other civil rights violations.”
Days before the review’s announcement, nearly 800 Harvard faculty members sent a letter to the Harvard Corporation and Board of Overseers urging the school to resist demands from the Trump administration and publicly condemn its attacks on the nation’s universities.
After Harvard received notification of the review last week, President Alan Garber said if the funding were revoked, it would “halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation.”
Andrew Manuel Crespo, a professor of law at Harvard University and general counsel of the AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter, said in a statement the First Amendment “does not permit government officials to use the power of their office to silence critics and suppress speech they don’t like.”
“Harvard faculty have the constitutional right to speak, teach, and conduct research without fearing that the government will retaliate against their viewpoints by canceling grants,” Crespo said.
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