Trump team ‘cooked up' legal basis to go after Harvard funding, university lawyers tell judge

Independent

2 days ago

Attorneys for Harvard University have accused Donald Trump's administration of having 'cooked up' a bogus legal basis to pull $2.6 billion in federal funding from the nation's oldest university.
In a court hearing on Monday, the university's legal team accused the administration of ' blatant, unrepentant ' First Amendment violations with its list of demands to 'address bias, improve viewpoint diversity, and end ideological capture,' including reviewing departments that 'fuel antisemitic harassment.'
'It's the constitutional third rail, or it should be, for the government to insist it can engage in viewpoint discrimination,' said Harvard's attorney Steven Lehotsky, arguing that the administration is threatening the university's independence.
The White House and the university have sparred for months over the administration's escalating attempts to bend Harvard and other institutions to ideologically driven demands, particularly over opposition to pro-Palestine campus demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza, which the administration claims are antisemitic.
In April, the government emailed Harvard a set of demands, including to submit to a 'viewpoint diversity' audit and end diversity-based hiring and admissions practices. The administration then threatened to terminate more than $2 billion in federal grants.
Those grants support research into Alzheimer's prevention, cancer treatment, and national security studies, among other projects.
Harvard's federal lawsuit says the government 'fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer, support veterans, and improve national security addresses antisemitism.'
In court documents, attorneys for the university argue that the administration is wielding funding threats as 'leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking at Harvard' while imperiling vital research in medicine, science and technology.
The Trump administration denies the cuts were retaliatory and were under review long before the demand letter was sent in April.
Massachusetts District Judge Allison Burroughs appeared unconvinced.
'You're not taking away grants from labs that have been antisemitic,' she told lawyers for the government during Monday's hearing in Boston.
Burroughs argued that the government provided 'no documentation, no procedure' to determine whether Harvard had 'taken enough steps' to combat allegations of antisemitism.
'The consequences of that in terms of constitutional law are staggering,' she added. 'I don't think you can justify a contract action based on impermissible suppression of speech. Where do I have that wrong?'
Department of Justice counsel Michael Velchik argued that the administration has authority to make such decisions about where funding should or shouldn't go, and that 'the government does not want to fund research at institutions that fail to address antisemitism to its satisfaction.'
Monday's hearing follows months of tension between Harvard and the Trump administration, which has zeroed in on campus activism at prestigious universities as part of a multi-pronged attack on campus dissent; diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and immigration policies and international students.
Department of Homeland Security has accused Harvard of fostering 'anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators,' and the president has complained that the university has not provided the government with information about foreign students he calls 'radicalized lunatics' and 'troublemakers' who 'should not be let back into our Country.'
In May, the administration also tried to rescind Harvard's permissions to enroll international students and forced currently enrolled foreign students to leave the university or risk losing their legal status in the U.S.
Judge Burroughs blocked that attempt day later in a separate lawsuit brought by the university.
The General Services Administration also ordered federal agencies to consider canceling government contracts with Harvard, which the agency accused of continuing to 'engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life' and failing to protect students from antisemitism.
'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,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement when the cuts were first announced. 'Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege.'
But the government 'has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection' between allegations of antisemitism and threats to research that 'aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America's position as a global leader in innovation,' according to Harvard's complaint.