Press Release: 6/10/2025

AG Campbell Supports Harvard University's Challenge to the Trump Administration's Retaliatory Federal Funding Freeze

 

Multistate Amicus Brief Highlights Devastating Impact of Retaliatory Federal Funding Freeze on Local and State Economies 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

6/09/2025

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Kennedy Sims, Deputy Press Secretary

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Call Kennedy Sims, Deputy Press Secretary at (617) 727-2543

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Email Kennedy Sims, Deputy Press Secretary at Kennedy.Sims@mass.gov

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, supporting Harvard University’s motion for summary judgment in litigation against a number of federal agencies for their unlawful cancellation ofmore than $2 billion in federal funding to the university.

"The Trump Administration’s attack on Harvard is an attack on the Commonwealth itself. The President cannot strong-arm universities into abandoning their core values or relinquishing their independence,” said AG Campbell. “Harvard is right to uphold diversity, academic freedom, and students’ rights, and I will continue to stand with every university that shows the courage to defend these principles in this moment.”

On April 11, the Administration identified a series of demands that Harvard University must satisfy in order to receive federal research funding that had already been committed to the school. Harvard rightly refused to relinquish its academic independence, and the federal government subsequently announced that it was freezing over $2billion in federal funding to the university. Harvard has since filed a lawsuit against the Administration, and the university is requesting that judgment enter in their favor. The brief of the attorneys general supports Harvard in that effort.

Since its founding in 1636, Harvard University has been critical to the continued growth and development of the Commonwealth. Today, Harvard is the fifth-largest employer of Massachusetts residents. In fiscal year 2024, Harvard spent $1.45 billion at Massachusetts-based businesses. Harvard’s research activity fuels the Massachusetts economy. Harvard is also a major driver of Massachusetts tourism.

In her brief, AG Campbell argues that the Administration’s punitive and unlawful funding freeze, which poses an unprecedented threat to Harvard, would have devastating effects on the Massachusetts economy. Beyond threatening current jobs and businesses, the funding freeze would impede research that promises to improve and lengthen the lives of Massachusetts residents. Over the past twelve years, more than 160 start-ups have been launched based on research developed at Harvard. As of July 2023, Harvardheld 1,116 active technology licenses with 750 industry partners nationwide. In just one year, 57 life sciences start-ups were launched through the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab, which supports high-potential biotech and life sciences ventures—90 percent of which were based in Massachusetts.Harvard’s research alone has produced countless new treatments for disease, including cutting-edge cancer immunotherapy treatments, a revolutionary treatment for obesity, and innovations in organ transplantation. 

Joining AG Campbell in submitting this brief are the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.