Two groups represented Harvard professors a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday, saying that its threat to reduce billions of federal funding for the university violates freedom of expression and the rights of the first amendment.
The lawsuit is followed by the American Association of University Professors and the Harvard College of the Group advertisement Earlier this month, it fell about $ 9 billion of federal funding received by Harvard University. The administration also sent the school a list of the demands that you should meet if it wants to keep the money.
The lawsuit, presented in the Federal Provincial Court in Massachusetts, Seek A temporary restriction to prevent the Trump administration from cutting money.
The lawsuit said: “This procedure challenges the illegal and unprecedented misuse of federal financing and enforce their civil rights to undermine academic freedom and freedom of expression on the university campus.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
The Trump administration was in a campaign against elite universities that it seen as very lenient in anti -Semitism. In a recent message to Harvard, the administration said the school “mainly failed to protect American students and faculty members from anti -Semitic violence.” Like other high schools like Colombia and Cornell It was also targeted.
Harvard did not respond to the comment on Saturday. In recent weeks, the university president, Alan Garper, said that Harvard has spent a “great effort” During the past 15 months, address anti -SemitismAdding that there is still more work to do.
In a statement, Andrew Manuel Crespo, a law professor at Harvard University and General Adviser to Chapter of the AAUP-RARVARD teaching staff, said that management policies are an excuse for cold universities and their colleges to engage in speech, education and research that are not in line with President Trump’s views.
“The faculty members at Harvard University have the constitutional right to speak and teach research and conduct it without fear that the government will be divided from their views by canceling the grants,” said Mr. Crespo.
On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators, including students, professors, and even the mayor of Cambridge, challenged the cold to protest against the Trump administration’s threat to reduce Harvard’s financing. In a crowded garden in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the home of the Harvard University campus, they called the university to lead the charge against the government’s campaign for higher education.
“Harvard is not only the resources that determine the pressure, but the moral commitment to do so,” said Mayor Dennis Simons of Cambridge.
Miles J. Hersenhurn in reports from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
