Kai Nip

Yale has joined a coalition of 18 universities seeking to formally back Harvard’s lawsuit against the federal government over research funding freezes.

In a motion filed in the U.S. district court in Massachusetts, the universities asked for approval to file a full amicus curiae brief in support of Harvard. The motion outlines how the Trump administration’s funding terminations “inflict grievous harm” not only on Harvard, but on American research as a whole.

Judge Allison D. Burroughs granted the universities’ motion on Friday. As of 6 p.m. on Friday, the schools had yet to file the brief, per online court records.

The lawsuit, filed by Harvard on April 21 against the Trump administration, argues that the government’s freeze on research funding is “flatly unlawful.” Harvard also filed a separate lawsuit against the government on May 23, after the Department of Homeland Security announced it would revoke its certification to enroll international students, a move that was paused by a federal judge.

In a message to the Harvard community on the day the first lawsuit was filed, Harvard President Alan Garber said the lawsuit was triggered by the Trump administration’s demand for sweeping changes to Harvard’s governance, hiring and admissions policies — which he said would amount to “unprecedented and improper control over the University.”

The Trump administration has justified its crackdown on Harvard by arguing that the university tolerated antisemitism on its campus during pro-Palestinian protests last year, among other reasons.

In the request to file an amicus brief, Yale and the 17 other institutions — including all of Harvard’s Ivy League peers other than Columbia and Cornell — argue that the action by the federal government undermines the “longstanding mutually beneficial partnership between the government and academia that has powered American innovation and ensured American leadership for over eighty years.”

The motion also says: “Together with private donations and their own investments, the universities have put those resources to work, conducting fundamental research that has advanced scientific knowledge, safeguarded national security, strengthened the American economy, and saved countless lives.”

Those arguments recall Yale University President Maurie McInnis’ speech to alumni during a reunion weekend in May, in which she emphasized how critical the “partnership” between universities and the federal government is, citing how federal funding has allowed Yale’s researchers to be the first to deliver chemotherapy and develop the insulin pump.

“The elimination of funding at Harvard negatively impacts the entire ecosystem,” the motion reads. “The cuts will disrupt ongoing research, ruin experiments and datasets, destroy the careers of aspiring scientists, and deter long-term investments at universities across the country, including amici.”

The universities’ legal counsel includes former U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. ’79.