Harvard Asks To Name 2 More Agencies, Include New Funding Cuts in Lawsuit Against Trump Admin

Harvard asked on Tuesday to name two more federal agencies in its lawsuit against the Trump administration and encompass the administration’s expanding campaign against Harvard, which now targets more than $2.6 billion in federal funding and all future grants.

The United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are named as defendants in Harvard’s amended complaint, which the University filed Tuesday afternoon — hours after the federal government announced an additional $450 million cut to Harvard’s funding.

Harvard argues that the Trump administration’s actions are a violation of its institutional First Amendment rights as well as federal procedures. In the amended complaint, the University doubled down on its claim that the funding cuts were retaliation for its refusal of the government’s demands and, now, for its lawsuit.

After Harvard first sued on April 22, the Trump administration only intensified its crusade against the University. On May 5, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 announcing the federal government would no longer award the University grants.

And according to documents released by Harvard alongside the amended complaint, seven government agencies sent the University notifications following McMahon’s announcement that they would terminate grant funding.

Just hours after McMahon’s May 5 letter was sent, the National Institutes of Health sent its own letter announcing the termination of the University’s federal funding, citing that its research no longer met the agency’s standard for public benefit. Four days later, the USAD followed suit, issuing a similarly worded notice cutting Harvard’s grants over allegations that the University fostered antisemitism.

Then on Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, HUD, and National Science Foundation sent analogous letters notifying Harvard of funding cuts. The Department of Education sent individual grant termination notices on the same day.

The amended lawsuit expands the scope of Harvard’s claims to include not just the freeze of contracts but their termination by multiple federal agencies.

All the letters attributed the terminations to Harvard’s lack of response to antisemitism. But Harvard’s lawsuit argued that the government bypassed Title VI Civil Rights Act’s specific enforcement procedures and failed to identify any actual violations of the law.

The amended lawsuit pointed to the letters as a concerted effort by the Trump administration to “leverage Harvard’s federal funding to indirectly infringe Harvard’s constitutionally protected academic freedom.”

The agencies also gave the University no opportunity to respond to its allegations before it was “blacklisted” from future grants, the lawsuit argues.

The government “has not identified—and cannot— identify —any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen or terminated,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote.

The amended filing also cited President Donald Trump’s threats to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status on social media as a further example of how the government was pushing to punish the University for protecting its constitutional rights.

The Monday amendments did not request a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, which would have temporarily prevented the Trump administration from enforcing the funding freeze, despite the slew of funding cuts.

A hearing date for the lawsuit is set for July 21 after a federal judge agreed to expedite the process.

Correction: May 14, 2025

A previous version of this article misspelled Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s surname on some references.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.