The Trump administration intends to return billions in federal funding given to Harvard University over the years.
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The Trump administration also sued Harvard University, accusing the university of violating civil rights.
In February, the Justice Department sued Harvard, accusing the university of failing to comply with an investigation into its admissions practices. Now, the administration is extending its nearly year-long battle with the university.
In this latest lawsuit, the Justice Department says Harvard has failed to respond adequately to reports of anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination and is seeking to return billions in federal funding awarded to the institution over the years. The federal government previously froze more than $2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, but a federal judge ruled that the freeze was illegal and reinstated the funding.
The lawsuit comes after the Department of Health and Human Services found last summer that Harvard had it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on shared ancestry, including anti-Semitism. Since then, HHS has been working to bring Harvard into voluntary compliance with Title VI, according to the lawsuit. But the government’s complaint does not say exactly why it decided to bring the case now.
President Trump demanded in early February that Harvard pay $1 billion in damages.
Harvard has acknowledged the need to improve its response to anti-Semitism and announced a slate of reforms last April. But Paula Stannard, director of HHS’s office of civil rights, said in a news release Friday that “Harvard’s proposed changes do not meet the requirements of Title VI.”
“OCR needs concrete action, not guarantees,” he added.
The lawsuit alleges that Harvard “remained willfully ignorant” of hostility reported by Jewish and Israeli students.
“Harvard also willfully refuses to enforce its own institution’s rules — rules that apply to others — when the victims are Jews or Israelis,” the lawsuit says. “This sent a clear message to the Harvard Jewish and Israeli community that neglect was no accident; they were being deliberately excluded and denied equal access to educational opportunities.”
The DOJ is asking a federal judge to declare that Harvard discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students and require the university to enforce time, place and manner restrictions on college protests; to punish those who violate those terms; and seeking the assistance of law enforcement to arrest “protesters who are unlawfully blocking movement on campus and occupying Harvard buildings and exteriors following orders to disperse.”
A Harvard spokesperson said I New York Times that the university’s Title VI changes “show the very opposite of willful indifference.”
The spokesman added that the lawsuit “represents yet another retaliatory act by the administration for refusing to grant Harvard access to the federal government.”
