Trump administration sues Harvard, saying it violated civil rights law
and seeking to recover funds
[March 21, 2026]
By MORIAH BALINGIT and MICHAEL CASEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday
against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed to address
antisemitism on campus, creating grounds for the government to freeze
existing grants and seek repayment for grants already paid.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another salvo
in a protracted battle between the administration of President Donald
Trump and the elite university.
“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures,” the
Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit. It asked the court to compel
Harvard to comply with federal civil rights law and to help it “recover
billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory
institution.”
The lawsuit also asks a judge to require Harvard to call police to
arrest protesters blocking parts of campus and to appoint an independent
monitor, approved by the government, to ensure the university complies
with court orders.
In a statement, Harvard said it “cares deeply about members of our
Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are
embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus.”
“Harvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root
causes of antisemitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and
anti-discrimination rules and policies,” the statement read.
In a pair of lawsuits filed last year by the university, Harvard has
said it’s being illegally penalized for refusing to adopt the
administration’s views. A federal judge sided with Harvard in September,
reversing the funding cuts and calling the antisemitism argument a
“smokescreen.”
Trump’s year-long battle with Harvard
The government’s new lawsuit comes after negotiations appear to have
bogged down in the year-long battle, which has tested the boundaries of
the government’s authority over America’s universities. What began as an
investigation into allegations of campus antisemitism escalated into an
all-out feud. The Trump administration slashed more than $2.6 billion in
Harvard’s research funding, ended federal contracts and attempted to
block Harvard from hosting international students.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a major
association of colleges and universities, accused the administration of
launching a “full scale, multi-pronged” attack on Harvard. Friday’s
lawsuit, he said in an email, is just the latest attempt to pressure
Harvard to agree to changes favored by the administration.
“When bullies pound on the table and don’t get what they want, they
pound again,” Mitchell said.
The Trump administration’s aggressive tactics toward Harvard mark an
extraordinary departure from how previous administrations have enforced
civil rights law at American colleges. In the past, the government
investigated allegations of civil rights violations, produced findings
and typically reached an agreement with the college to bring it into
compliance. Occasionally, the government levied fines and could threaten
to pull federal funding. The process typically took months or years.
In contrast, Trump had been in office fewer than three months before he
had frozen billions of dollars in grants to Harvard, including money for
medical research. He has since tried to press the school to pay the
government to end the standoff.
“The administration appears to have filed this new lawsuit to make an
end run around its loss in the district courts and the pending appeal,
and its failed settlement negotiations with Harvard,” said Anurima
Bhargava, former chief of the Educational Opportunities Section at the
U.S. Department of Justice and a senior adviser for the group Stand for
Campus Freedom.
At issue: Civil rights and First Amendment rights
The Trump administration’s case has centered on allegations of
discrimination against Harvard’s Jewish and Israeli students during and
after pro-Palestinian demonstrations related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Officials concluded Harvard did not adequately address concerns about
antisemitism that some students said kept them from going to class.
During protests of the war, Trump officials said, Harvard permitted
students to demonstrate against Israel’s actions in the school library
and allowed a pro-Palestinian encampment to remain on campus for 20
days, “in violation of university policy.”
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President Donald Trump arriving to speak at the Commander-in-Chief's
Trophy presentation with the Navy Midshipmen football team in the
East Room of the White House, Friday, March 20, 2026, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
In its lawsuit Friday, the Justice Department also accused Harvard
of failing to discipline staff or students who protested or tacitly
endorsed the demonstrations by canceling class or dismissing
students early.
“Harvard University has failed to protect its Jewish students from
harassment and has allowed discrimination to wreak havoc on its
campus,” White House press secretary Liz Huston said Friday on X.
Harvard, in turn, has said the government is violating its First
Amendment rights, after it defied federal demands that it limit
activism on campus and change some practices for hiring and
enrollment.
“The tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: Allow
the Government to micromanage your academic institution or
jeopardize the institution’s ability to pursue medical
breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions,”
attorneys for Harvard said in a lawsuit over the funding freeze.
Negotiations with Harvard have frayed
Despite their bitter dispute, Harvard and the Trump administration
have held some negotiations, and the two sides have reportedly been
close to reaching an agreement on multiple occasions. Last year,
they were reportedly approaching a deal requiring Harvard to pay
$500 million to regain access to federal funding and end the
investigations. Several months later, Trump upped that figure to $1
billion, saying Harvard has been “behaving very badly.”
At the same time, the administration was taking steps in a civil
rights investigation that could jeopardize all Harvard’s federal
funding.
Last June, a federal task force said its investigation had found the
university was a “willful participant” in antisemitic harassment of
Jewish students and faculty. The task force threatened to refer the
case to the Justice Department to file a civil rights lawsuit “as
soon as possible,” unless Harvard came into compliance.
When colleges are found in violation of federal civil rights law,
they almost always reach compliance through voluntary agreements.
Friday’s lawsuit by the Justice Department points to an
extraordinarily rare impasse.
Harvard has said it strongly disagrees with the government’s civil
rights finding and is committed to fighting bias.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber says the school formed a task force
to combat antisemitism. The university also hired a new provost and
new deans and reformed its discipline policies to make them “more
consistent, fair and effective,” Garber has said.
Since he took office, Trump has targeted elite universities he
believes are overrun by left-wing ideology and antisemitism. His
administration has frozen billions of dollars in research grants,
which colleges have come to rely on for scientific and medical
research.
Several universities have reached agreements with the White House to
restore funding. Some deals have included direct payments to the
government, including $200 million from Columbia University. Brown
University agreed to pay $50 million toward state workforce
development groups.
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AP Education Writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
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