Harvard University has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration following the White House’s decision to freeze more than $2.2 billion in research funding tied to the Ivy League institution. The suit, filed Monday in Massachusetts, claims the funding halt represents unconstitutional government overreach and violates longstanding legal protections.
In a message to the university community, Harvard President Alan Garber said the administration’s actions threaten not just Harvard’s operations, but also broader national interests in health, science, and security.
“The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” Garber wrote.
The funding freeze stems from the administration’s recent demands that Harvard conduct a student audit on political views and bar international students deemed “hostile to American values.” The administration framed these requirements as efforts to address antisemitism on campus.
However, Harvard argues in its suit that the funding cut is unrelated to those concerns and instead targets core academic and scientific research that has no bearing on campus speech or student ideology.
“The Government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen,” the university stated in its complaint. “Nor has the Government acknowledged the significant consequences that the indefinite freeze of billions of dollars in federal research funding will have on Harvard’s research programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the national interest.”
The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of violating the First Amendment and federal law, and it asks the court to declare the funding freeze unconstitutional. Harvard is also requesting that any freezes or terminations of existing federal research funding be immediately reversed.
The White House has not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit.
