Harvard University expanded its lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s moves to cut off billions of dollars in federal funding to the Ivy League school on Tuesday after officials said they are terminating an additional $450 million in grants.
Harvard filed the amended complaint in federal court in Boston hours after a federal antisemitism task force announced that eight government agencies were canceling additional grants on top of the $2.2 billion in funding US President Donald Trump’s administration had already terminated.
The task force, which includes representatives from agencies including the US departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice, did so after accusing the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school of failing to confront “pervasive race discrimination and antisemitic harassment plaguing its campus.”
In response, Harvard expanded a lawsuit it first filed on April 22 after the administration froze the initial $2.2 billion to cover those latest research-grant terminations, which came from agencies including the US departments of Defense and Energy as well as the National Science Foundation.
The revised complaint also now challenges a decision by the administration announced in a letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon last week to freeze billions of dollars in future research grants and other aid until the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college concedes to the administration’s demands.
Harvard argues the administration’s sweeping demands violate the free speech guarantees of the US Constitution’s First Amendment. It says the massive funding freeze is overly broad and was instituted without following proper procedures.
“The government has not identified — and cannot identify — any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen or terminated,” the lawsuit said.
Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023, a week after Hamas terrorists launched a massacre in southern Israel. (Joseph Prezioso / AFP)
Harvard is asking US District Judge Allison Burroughs to declare the administration’s actions unlawful and block the grant terminations. She previously scheduled arguments in the case for July 21.
Trump has targeted Harvard, citing allegations of antisemitism on campus during pro-Palestinian protests against Israel over the war in Gaza with Hamas, which sparked the fighting with its October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.
Trump has alleged pro-Palestinian protesters are antisemitic and sympathetic to Hamas. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
The Trump administration has moved to cancel funding after announcing in late March it was launching a review of about $9 billion in grants and contracts with Harvard. Trump has also threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status.
Harvard in its complaint said it is committed to combating antisemitism and has taken steps to ensure its campus is safe and welcoming to Jewish and Israeli students. It said the administration’s actions are a threat to academic freedom.
Harvard has a $53 billion endowment, the largest of any US university, but the funds are often restricted and used for things like financial aid and scholarships.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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