President Donald Trump’s campaign to pressure elite universities into making a wide range of policy changes met its first major resistance when Harvard University sued the US government for freezing billions of dollars in federal funding.
Harvard filed the lawsuit after the White House froze $2.2 billion in research grants on April 14 over the university’s refusal to overhaul governance, discipline, hiring and admissions policies inconsistent with the administration’s agenda. Harvard alleges the government threatened its independence and stifled free speech in freezing the funds.
Harvard is part of a group of rich, highly selective universities that the Trump ...
