Harvard sues Trump administration over US federal funding cuts, calling actions 'arbitrary' and 'capricious'

In an escalation, Harvard sued Donald Trump's administration Monday amid the ongoing fight between the university and the president. The US president has threatened several prestigious universities over claims that they tolerated campus anti-Semitism. For Harvard, he said to review the $9bn federal funding. The university specifically wants to halt a freeze on $2.2bn in grants. 

Trump has sought to impose outside political supervision in elite universities, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrollment of foreign students. 

Now, the lawsuit has been filed in a Massachusetts federal court that named several other institutions targeted by Trump. "This case involves the Government's efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard," in a statement, the Ivy League university said. 

"The Government's actions flout not just the First Amendment, but also federal laws and regulations," said the complaint which called Trump's actions "arbitrary and capricious." 

Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled "anti-Semitism" and a need to reverse diversity programmes aimed at addressing the historical oppression of minorities.

The administration claims protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.

Notably, when the protests were taking place, many US universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time. The Cambridge-based institution had even placed 23 students on probation and denied degrees to 12 others, according to protest organisers. 

Harvard has refuted all the claims that the campus protests are anti-American, with its president Alan Garber saying that the government should not dictate the private universities. 

In a recent letter announcing the university's decision, Garber wrote: "No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." 

The president issued a statement on Monday, reiterating that the Trump administration had doubled down on its response, despite claims that the letter indicating Harvard’s federal research funding was at risk was sent by mistake. 

"The government has, in addition to the initial freeze of $2.2 billion in funding, considered taking steps to freeze an additional $1 billion in grants, initiated numerous investigations of Harvard's operations, threatened the education of international students, and announced that it is considering a revocation of Harvard's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status," Garber wrote. 

"These actions have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world," he added.