Harvard professors sue Trump administration over threat to cut funding

Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass, March 19, 2025. Two groups representing Harvard professors sued the Trump administration on Friday, April 12, saying that its threat to cut billions in federal funding for the university violates free speech and other First Amendment rights. (Sophie Park/The New York Times)

By Edgar Sandoval

Two groups representing Harvard University professors sued the Trump administration Friday, saying that its threat to cut billions in federal funding for the university violates free speech and other First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit by the American Association of University Professors and the Harvard faculty chapter of the group follows the Trump administration’s announcement this month that it was reviewing about $9 billion in federal funding that Harvard receives. The administration also sent the school a list of demands that it must meet if it wants to keep the funds.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, seeks a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration from cutting the funds.

“This action challenges the Trump administration’s unlawful and unprecedented misuse of federal funding and civil rights enforcement authority to undermine academic freedom and free speech on a university campus,” the lawsuit said.

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The Trump administration has been on a campaign against elite universities that it views as being too lax on antisemitism. In a recent letter to Harvard, the administration said the school had “fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence.” Other top schools including Columbia and Cornell universities have also been targeted.

Harvard did not respond to a request for comment Saturday. In recent weeks, Alan Garber, the university president, has said that Harvard had spent “considerable effort” during the past 15 months addressing antisemitism, adding that there was still more work to be done.

In a statement, Andrew Manuel Crespo, a law professor at Harvard and general counsel of the AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter, said the administration’s policies are a pretext to chill universities and their faculties from engaging in speech, teaching and research that don’t align with President Donald Trump’s views.

“Harvard faculty have the constitutional right to speak, teach and conduct research without fearing that the government will retaliate against their viewpoints by canceling grants,” Crespo said.

On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of protesters, including students, professors and even the mayor of Cambridge, braved the cold to protest against the administration’s threat to cut Harvard’s funding. At a packed park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to Harvard’s campus, they called on the university to lead the charge against the government’s crackdown on higher education.

“Harvard possesses not just the resources to withstand the pressure,” said Mayor Denise Simmons of Cambridge, “but the moral obligation to do so.”