A newly filed “friend of the court” brief urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to uphold a Massachusetts district court order blocking the Trump administration’s attempted hostile ideological takeover of Harvard University. The brief was filed by 36 colleges and universities, including Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, and argues that the administration’s proposed unconstitutional cancellation of Harvard’s scientific funding would be detrimental to the nation. The brief joins one that was filed by the ACLU of Rhode Island and other civil liberties groups in June that similarly supports Harvard against the proposed termination of its funding on ideological grounds.
Last year, the federal government decided to withhold billions of dollars in research funding from Harvard University after the university refused to vet its students, faculty, and course offerings for “ideological diversity.” In September 2025, a federal court in Massachusetts blocked the government’s effort, noting that the Trump administration tried to “force Harvard to better manifest the government’s favored worldview,” in direct violation of the university’s right to free speech. The Trump administration appealed that ruling to the First Circuit.
The universities’ brief illustrates the damage that could be done to the scientific community if the federal government, which has supported academic research across the country for decades, is allowed to cut funding from Harvard for ideological reasons. Describing the breadth of research that has resulted in some of the most important discoveries — including the internet, radar technology, and life-saving vaccines — the brief states that the government’s actions “jeopardizes American innovation and economic growth” by harming research and researchers across the country. The brief states:
Draconian cuts to federal research funding endanger this longstanding, mutually beneficial relationship between institutions of higher learning and the American public—especially when funding is terminated or withheld for reasons wholly unrelated to the merits of funded research.
This echoes the brief filed the ACLU and other First Amendment organizations earlier in the summer, which focused on how the ideological termination of funding violates the First Amendment’s protection of academic freedom. The June brief stated that rather than focus on the merits of Harvard’s research, the government “improperly seeks to leverage federal research funds in a viewpoint-based way, to control speech outside of the scope of the program, and to control the work of a private university—each of which is unconstitutional in its own right.”
The university brief, along with the ACLU’s earlier brief, can be read here.
