Harvard Professors Sue Trump Admin Over Threat to Withhold Nearly $9 Billion

‘Threats like these are an existential gun to the head for a university,’ the professors stated in their lawsuit.

Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Dec. 12, 2023. Reuters/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Harvard University’s professors sued the Trump administration on April 11 after it threatened to withhold nearly $9 billion in grants and contracts if the university fails to adopt the administration’s required structural changes.

The Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed a lawsuit alleging that the administration’s action represents an “unlawful and unprecedented misuse of federal funding and civil rights enforcement authority to undermine academic freedom and free speech” on a university’s campus.

According to the court filing, the university received a letter from the administration on April 3 outlining the “non-exhaustive preconditions” it must meet in order to keep its government funding, following an investigation into the university’s failures to address anti-Semitism on campus.

Among the requirements are a review of programs that fuel anti-Semitic harassment on campus. The stated reason for the requirements is to “improve viewpoint diversity“ and ”end ideological capture” within the university. Harvard was also required to enact a ban on masks during protests and eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to the lawsuit.

It stated that the administration threatened to terminate at least $255.6 million in contracts and place more than $8.7 billion in multiyear grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates under review unless the university agrees to implement the proposed changes.

“Harvard, like all American universities, depends on federal funding to conduct its academic research. Threats like these are an existential ‘gun to the head’ for a university,” the lawsuit states.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the administration is working to end “unchecked anti-Semitism” and ensure taxpayer money is not used to support “dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence.”

“Harvard or any institution that wishes to violate Title VI is, by law, not eligible for federal funding,” Fields said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

The plaintiffs accused the administration of misusing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, an anti-discrimination law that applies to federally funded institutions, to “coerce universities into undermining free speech.”

“These sweeping yet indeterminate demands are not remedies targeting the causes of any determination of noncompliance with federal law. Instead, they overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech,” they state.

The professors asked the court to preliminarily and permanently enjoin any further investigation or review of the university’s federal funding. They also requested that it block the administration from using its authority to penalize Harvard over the viewpoints of its members.

Harvard University is one of 60 institutions of higher education currently under investigation for allegations of anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment on campus.

Protests erupted across universities in the United States after Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of eradicating the Hamas terrorist group. The operation was retaliation for a land, sea, and air attack carried out by Hamas on southern Israel on Oct. 7. 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostage 251 more.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has urged university leaders to prevent discrimination against Jewish students on campus or risk losing federal funding.

“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year,” McMahon said in a statement on March 10.

“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal anti-discrimination laws.”

Harvard University’s professors also filed a motion on April 11 seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from cutting funding while the litigation continues, saying that it would cause “severe irreparable harm” to the university and disrupt its research operations.

“No law in this country permits Trump to suspend billions from universities simply because he doesn’t like the constitutionally protected speech of their students & faculty,” Nikolas Bowie of Harvard’s AAUP said in a statement.