Trump administration sued Harv
The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University on Friday, saying its leadership failed to address anti-Semitism on campus, creating grounds for the government to freeze existing grants and demand repayment of grants already paid.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another message in the long battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and the elite university.
“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and takes this action to force Harvard to comply with federal civil rights law,” the Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit, “and to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies given to a discriminatory institution.” Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes after negotiations got stuck in a months-long battle with the Trump administration that has tested the limits of the government’s authority over America’s universities. What started as an investigation into anti-Semitism on campus has turned into an all-out feud as the Trump administration cut more than $2.6 billion in research funding, ended federal contracts and attempted to block Harvard from hosting international students.
In a pair of lawsuits filed by the university, Harvard says it is being unfairly punished for refusing to adopt the administration’s views. A federal judge agreed in December, overturning the funding cuts and calling the anti-Semitic argument a “smokescreen.” Nevertheless, Harvard and the Trump administration have held some talks, and both sides have reportedly been close to reaching an agreement on several occasions. Last year, the administration and the university were reportedly reaching an agreement that would require Harvard to pay $500 million to gain access to federal funding and end the investigation. About a year later, Trump raised that figure to $1 billion, saying Harvard was “behaving very badly.” At the same time, the administration was moving into a civil rights investigation that had the potential to jeopardize all of Harvard’s federal funding, including federal student aid.
In June, the Trump administration said a civil rights investigation had formally concluded that Harvard tolerated anti-Semitism.
In a letter sent to Harvard, a federal task force said its investigation had found that the university was a “knowing participant” in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students and faculty. The task force threatened to send the matter to the Justice Department to file a civil rights lawsuit “as soon as possible” unless Harvard came into compliance.
Harvard responded that it strongly disagrees with the government’s findings and is committed to fighting bias.
“Anti-Semitism is a serious problem and is unacceptable no matter the context,” the university said in a statement. “Harvard has taken concrete, proactive steps to address the root causes of anti-Semitism in its community.” Since he took office, Trump has targeted specific universities he believes are rife with left-wing ideology and anti-Semitism. His administration has frozen billions of dollars in research grants that colleges have come to rely on for scientific and medical research.
Many universities have reached agreements with the White House to restore funding. Some deals include direct payments to the government, including $200 million from Columbia University. Brown University agreed to pay $50 million to state workforce development groups.
