1 day ago
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, alleging that its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus. The government says this failure justifies freezing existing grants and seeking repayment for grants already disbursed.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, marks the latest development in a prolonged conflict between President Donald Trump’s administration and the prestigious university.
“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and brings this action to compel Harvard to comply” with federal civil rights law, the Justice Department stated in the lawsuit, “and to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This lawsuit follows stalled negotiations in the months-long dispute with the Trump administration, which has tested the limits of government authority over American universities. What began as an investigation into campus antisemitism escalated into a broader conflict as the administration cut more than $2.6 billion in research funding, terminated federal contracts, and sought to block Harvard from hosting international students.
In two lawsuits filed by Harvard, the university argued it was unfairly penalized for refusing to adopt the administration’s positions. A federal judge sided with Harvard in December, reversing the funding cuts and describing the antisemitism claims as a “smokescreen.”
There have been multiple reports suggesting the two sides were close to reaching a settlement. Last year, the administration and Harvard reportedly neared a deal requiring the university to pay $500 million to restore federal funding and end investigations. Nearly a year later, Trump increased that demand to $1 billion, stating that Harvard has been “behaving very badly.”
Since taking office, Trump has targeted elite universities he perceives as dominated by left-wing ideology and antisemitism, freezing billions in research grants.
