2 weeks Ago By Jack Queen
Harvard University is suing on Monday to block US President Donald Trump from freezing billions of dollars in federal funding after the elite research institution rejected a list of White House demands that it says would undermine its independence. Login or signup to continue reading The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston on Monday says Trump has launched a broad attack on funding for cutting-edge research at major universities as he seeks to rid them of what he describes as anti-Semitism and ideological bias. "This case involves the government's efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard," the lawsuit says.
Harvard alleges the Trump administration's actions are arbitrary and unlawful and violate the university's constitutional right to free speech. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since his January inauguration, Trump has cracked down on top US universities, saying they mishandled 2024's pro-Palestinian protests and allowed anti-Semitism to fester on campuses.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say their criticism of Israel's military actions in Gaza is wrongly conflated with anti-Semitism. Harvard is the first university to file a lawsuit in response to Trump's crackdown. The Trump administration began a review of $US9 billion ($A14 billion) in federal funding for Harvard in March and subsequently gave the university a sweeping list of demands, including a mask ban and end to all diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Since then, the Trump administration has frozen $US2.3 billion in funding to Harvard and threatened to strip the university of its tax-exempt status and take away its ability to enroll foreign students. It has also demanded information on the university's foreign ties, funding, students and faculty.
The Trump administration has also paused some funding for universities including Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Brown over the campus protests. In a statement about the Harvard lawsuit, university president Alan Garber said the institution would continue to fight hate and fully comply with anti-discrimination laws, which Trump accused it of violating in its response to pro-Palestine protests. Instead of engaging with Harvard about fighting anti-Semitism as civil rights law requires, Garber said, the government was seeking "to control whom we hire and teach".
The lawsuit names various federal officials and agencies, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Energy and Education. Representatives of those agencies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Australian Associated Press Daily Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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