Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against several US agencies and senior officials after the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in federal research funding.

The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal court, challenges what Harvard describes as unconstitutional demands by the government to overhaul its governance, admissions, hiring, and diversity policies. The university claims the funding freeze violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedures Act.

he dispute began when the Trump administration accused Harvard of failing to address antisemitism on campus. The government then issued sweeping demands, including changes to faculty hiring, a halt to race-based hiring preferences, restrictions on international student admissions, a ban on mask-wearing, and increased oversight of diversity programmes. Harvard rejected the terms on 14 April.

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Following the rejection, the administration paused $2.2 billion in current research funding, threatened to block an additional $1.1 billion, and suggested revoking the university’s tax-exempt status. It also launched a broader review of funding at elite institutions, including Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, and Northwestern.

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In its complaint, Harvard warns that the funding freeze could force it to scale back or halt critical research projects, cut employment contracts, and make broader programme reductions.

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The university is also challenging the government’s claim that civil rights violations justify cuts to funding for medical, scientific, and technological research. Harvard argues that there is no rational link between the research grants and the government’s civil rights allegations.

Named in the lawsuit are several cabinet secretaries, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for most of the suspended funding. The Department of Defense and NASA are also among the agencies cited.

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Harvard has assembled a legal team that includes two conservative lawyers with ties to the Trump administration, as well as a lobbying firm previously connected to Trump’s former chief of staff. The university has also appointed a conservative academic, John Manning, as provost to oversee academic policy amid the standoff.

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This case marks the most aggressive legal pushback yet against the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape elite US universities through financial pressure.