Attorney Alan Dershowitz said Monday in Newsmax that Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over frozen federal funds is a political manipulation with almost certain consequences with little legal merit.
Harvard sued the Trump administration Monday evening, accusing the government of using the threat of pulling federal funds to pressure schools to entrust control over academic decisions. When featured in “The Record with Greta Van Susterlen,” Dershowitz said the Harvard lawsuit was legally weak and politically calculated.
“Harvard is going to lose. Legally, the government is not obligated to fund a $53 billion university. We don’t know the basis for the lawsuit,” Dershowitz said. “They advocate for the First Amendment, but Harvard has the first First Amendment rights.
Dershowitz said the lawsuits are about pressure tactics, not constitutional rights.
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“I think the lawsuit is designed to send a message to the administration. Sit down and negotiate,” Dershowitz said. “We have two lawyers who are negotiators at first. They’re closer to Trump’s family and Trump’s business. I think this is simply a ploy to get a resolution.”
Dershowitz estimated that about a third of Harvard’s government requests would be reasonable, a third would be flawed and another third would fall into a grey area that could be resolved through the meeting. (Related: Alan Delsaushaw explains why the Central Park Five file a lawsuit against Trump.)
“About a third of what the government asked from Harvard is right. They should do that. A third of them may be wrong, and about a third of them will be subject to negotiation. So this case will be resolved.
The Trump administration began threatening to cut Harvard funds in April after ordering universities to comply with certain measures aimed at curbing anti-Semitism on campus. On April 11, the Department of Education called for Harvard to address anti-Semitism by reforming its disciplinary policies, reviewing international students for hostile views, and reviewing programs with a history of anti-Semitism.
After Harvard rejected the terms on April 14, and what it called a federal “acquisition,” the Joint Task Force to Fight Anti-Semitism moved to cancel the $2.2 billion grant and $60 million contract, criticising the university’s “qualification thinking” on federal funds. Additionally, a senior health and human resources official told Daily Caller that the Trump administration has suspended more than 500 National Institutes grants to Harvard, earning more than $1 billion in total.
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