Is Trump restoring or threatening free speech?

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Harvard’s lawsuit against Trump’s funding freeze has set the stage for a legal showdown over the First Amendment.

By Annie Jonas

April 29, 2025 | 9:24 AM

2 minutes to read

Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration is sparking a national conversation about the First Amendment, free speech, academic freedom, and government overreach. 

The university is challenging the administration’s freeze of over $2.2 billion in federal research grants, claiming it violates the First Amendment. But the Trump administration argued the university “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”

The controversy began with an April 11 letter from the Trump administration demanding sweeping changes at Harvard. The letter called for broad governance and leadership reforms, alterations to admissions policies, an audit of diversity-related programming, and an end to the recognition of certain student organizations. The administration justified its demands by arguing that universities, including Harvard, had allowed antisemitism to flourish during campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and need to be reformed.

Harvard President Alan Garber responded by refusing to comply, emphasizing the university’s independence and commitment to academic freedom. 

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said in an April 14 letter. By that evening, federal officials said they would freeze $2.2 billion in funding for Harvard’s research programs. In turn, Harvard filed suit against the Trump administration.

In its 51-page lawsuit, filed in United States district court on April 21, Harvard called the funding freeze “arbitrary and capricious,” stating that it not only violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights but also breaches Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination under federally funded programs.

“The Government’s actions flout not just the First Amendment, but also federal laws and regulations…The Government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation.”

The funding freeze is likely to continue well into the summer. At a Monday court hearing, US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs set a July 21 hearing for oral arguments in the case, after Harvard warned that the freeze and additional threatened cuts were putting research at risk.

We want to know: Is the Trump administration defending civil rights and battling antisemitism, or is it exploiting the First Amendment to suppress dissent and punish institutions that push back? 

Is the First Amendment being “flouted,” as Harvard argues, or is it being “restored” (one of the first actions Trump took in office was to sign an executive order aimed at “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship)?

Tell us by filling out the form or e-mailing us at [email protected], and your response may appear in a future Boston.com article.

Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.