Harvard University is suing the Trump administration after it froze $2.2 billion of the school’s funding.
The department for education accused the university of being unduly influenced by faculty, staff and students who are “more committed to activism than scholarship”.
Donald Trump demanded the university must only hire faculty and admit students based on merit and “cease all preferences based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin” and have an external panel audit the faculty and students of each department to ensure “viewpoint diversity”.
Funding was frozen last week after Harvard rejected the demands.
The New York Times reported a federal lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts which accused the government of attempting to “leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard” through the slew of recent attacks on the institution.
Alan M Garber, Harvard’s president, claimed Mr Trump and his administration had tried to wield “unprecedented and improper control” of the university.
The lawsuit names Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, Linda McMahon, the education secretary, Stephen Ehikian of the General Services Administration, and attorney general Pam Bondi among the defendants.
In a letter sent last week, the Trump administration also demanded the world’s wealthiest university screen international students “to prevent admitting students hostile to American values” and report foreign students who violate conduct rules to federal immigration authorities.
Refusing to agree to the administration’s demands, Mr Garber last week said: “No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
Since re-entering the White House, Mr Trump has launched an unprecedented war on what he sees to be “woke” campuses across the US.
Following Harvard’s funding freeze, he wrote on Truth Social: “Perhaps Harvard should lose its tax exempt status and be taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting sickness?
“Harvard is a JOKE, teaches hate and stupidity, and should no longer receive federal funds,” he said in another post.
In February, the government established the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, a multi-agency body tasked with rooting out “harassment in schools and on college campuses”.
Last month, Leo Terrell, the taskforce’s leader, warned it would “bankrupt” universities if they refuse to “play ball” with the White House’s push for reforms.
The White House has not yet commented.