Amicus Brief

LDAD Briefs Warn Harvard Funding Cuts Threaten Scientific Research and Constitutional Safeguards

June 28, 2021

Jul 28, 2026

Editorial credit: Shuterstock

Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) has filed two amicus briefs challenging the federal government's suspension and termination of billions of dollars of federal research funding to Harvard University.

 The first brief was filed in support of Harvard College's lawsuit that challenged the federal government's efforts to freeze and terminate approximately $2.2 billion of research grants. The second brief was filed at the request of the American Association of University Professors, Harvard Faculty Chapter, in its separate challenge to the same government actions. 

Both cases ask the First Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the district court’s decision to block the Administration's efforts to terminate federal funding to Harvard. The district court found that the administration’s reliance on “antisemitism” was a pretext to coerce Harvard to comply with its demands, and that its actions were unconstitutional and violated applicable statutes. In its decision, the district court noted that Harvard’s research programs “serve as training grounds for the next generation of scientific, technological, medical, and public health leaders, with grants supporting the work of more than a thousand graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who collectively pioneer life-altering advancements that benefit the nation.”

LDAD’s briefs argue that the challenged actions are not an isolated dispute over university funding but part of a broader campaign to concentrate power in the Executive by weakening independent institutions, including universities, law firms, civil society organizations, and the media, that serve as essential checks on executive power in a constitutional democracy.

Gershon ("Gary") Ratner, LDAD Co-Founder and Board member, said: “This is about far more than federal funding for one university. It is about preserving the independence of the institutions that serve as essential checks on executive power in our constitutional democracy. When government seeks to use its legal authority to control those institutions, the rule of law itself is at stake."

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