On June 9, the Knight Institute joined the ACLU and other legal advocacy organizations in filing an amicus brief supporting Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to withhold billions of dollars in federal research grants unless the university forfeits its institutional autonomy and adopts the government’s preferred vision of ideological balance in its hiring and admissions.

On April 11, 2025, several federal agencies sent a letter to Harvard stating that, in order to restore its research grants, the university would have to, among other things, (1) alter its governance structure to reduce the input of faculty and students, (2) prevent the admission of international students who are “hostile to the American values,” (3) ensure “viewpoint diversity” in the school’s faculty and student body, (4) eliminate all “DEI programs,” and (5) adopt restrictive policies on student speech on campus.

The Knight Institute’s amicus brief argues that the government’s conduct violates the First Amendment, because it attempts to impose the government’s vision of free speech on a private speaker, and because it attempts to leverage federal funding to impose restrictions on speech outside the scope of the federally funded programs.

Status: Opinion filed on September 3, 2025. 

Case Information: President and Fellows of Harvard College v. U.S. Dep't. of Health & Human Services, No. 1:25-cv-11048 (D.Mass).