Harvard gets other universities’ backing in Trump funding fight
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Harvard sued in April, claiming the government freeze violates the university’s First Amendment guarantee of free speech.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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BOSTON, Massachusetts – A group of 18 leading US research universities, including Princeton, MIT, Caltech and Johns Hopkins, has asked a federal judge for permission to file legal arguments in support of Harvard University in its high-stakes showdown with the Trump administration over more than US$2 billion (S$2.58 billion) in frozen grant money.
The institutions have all received millions of dollars from the federal government for research that has “advanced scientific knowledge, safeguarded national security, strengthened the American economy and saved countless lives”, they said in a court filing on June 6 in Harvard’s lawsuit.
Harvard sued in April, claiming the government freeze violates the university’s First Amendment guarantee of free speech and federal law governing administrative rule-making.
The fight is part of a broad-based effort by US President Donald Trump to force sweeping changes at Harvard and other elite US universities.
The government has also frozen or is reviewing federal funding to Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Columbia universities, among others.
Harvard says in its suit, filed in Boston federal court, that the Trump administration illegally suspended its funding in retaliation for its refusal to bow to “unconstitutional demands” to overhaul governance, discipline and hiring policies, as well as diversity programmes.
The President claims that Harvard, the nation’s oldest and richest university, has failed to combat anti-Semitism on campus and encourage viewpoint diversity.
“The cuts will disrupt ongoing research, ruin experiments and datasets, destroy the careers of aspiring scientists, and deter long-term investments at universities across the country,” the universities said in a request to file amicus curiae, or “friend of the court”, arguments supporting Harvard’s case against the government.
The request to support Harvard also comes from Boston University, Brown University, Colorado State University, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, Oregon State University, Rice University, Rutgers University, Tufts University, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and Yale University.
A group of states led by Massachusetts, where Harvard is located, also asked to file arguments in support of the university on June 6. BLOOMBERG
