The Trump administration began a review of US$9 billion in federal funding for Harvard in March and subsequently gave the university a sweeping list of demands, including a mask ban and end to all diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Since then, the Trump administration has frozen US$2.3 billion in funding to Harvard and threatened to strip the university of its tax-exempt status and take away its ability to enroll foreign students. It has also demanded information on the university’s foreign ties, funding, students and faculty.
The Trump administration has also paused some funding for universities including Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Brown over the campus protests.
In a statement about the Harvard lawsuit, university president Alan Garber said the institution would continue to fight hate and fully comply with anti-discrimination laws, which Trump accused it of violating in its response to pro-Palestine protests.
Instead of engaging with Harvard about fighting antisemitism as civil rights law requires, Garber said, the government was seeking “to control whom we hire and teach”.
The lawsuit names various federal officials and agencies, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Energy and Education.
Representatives of those agencies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.