12,000 Harvard Alumni Submit Amicus Brief Backing Harvard in Federal Funding Lawsuit
Updated June 9, 2025, at 3:42 p.m.
More than 12,000 Harvard alumni asked a federal judge Monday to accept an amicus brief urging the court to shield their alma mater from what they described as an “existential threat” posed by the Trump administration’s freeze of nearly $3 billion in federal research funding.
The proposed brief represents the largest-scale show of alumni support since Harvard filed suit against the White House in April, adding to a growing chorus of outside groups rallying behind the University.
The 14-page brief argued that the Trump administration’s actions represented a sweeping and unlawful attempt to control Harvard’s academic priorities and stifle free inquiry. It contended that the funding freeze endangered not only the University’s research mission but also the broader landscape of American higher education.
“The Government’s end goal is to narrow our freedoms to learn, teach, think, and act, and to claim for itself the right to dictate who may enjoy those freedoms,” the alumni wrote.
The filing supports Harvard’s May 30 motion for summary judgment, which seeks to resolve the case without a trial.
The 12,041 signatories span the Classes of 1950 through 2025 and represent all 12 of Harvard’s schools. Among them are late-night host Conan C. O’Brien ’85, novelist Margaret E. Atwood, and Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92. Other signatories — a broad cross-section of alumni from across the country and the world — include media executives, economists, lawyers, and health ministers.
Several sitting members of Congress also signed the brief, including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a former Crimson Editorial chair.
But no members of the Board of Overseers or the Corporation — the University’s governing bodies — signed onto the brief. The Harvard Alumni Association also had no role in organizing the effort, and no current University officials were involved in drafting or promoting the brief, according to a person familiar with the brief.
Instead, the initiative was led independently by a group of alumni affiliated with Crimson Courage, an alumni group that has emerged in strong defense of the University in recent months. In the weeks before the Monday filing, Crimson Courage circulated a draft of the brief and encouraged alumni to sign on via a Google Form.
In the filing, the alumni argued that the freeze would have far-reaching consequences beyond Harvard’s campus — disrupting innovation, economic growth, and public benefit derived from the University’s research. They pointed to a 2015 Harvard Business School study showing that alumni-founded ventures employ more than 20 million people worldwide and generate more than $3.9 trillion in annual revenue.
“We recognize that the unencumbered pursuit of knowledge at Harvard and our fellow educational institutions — where we learn how to think, not what to think; where there is no single right answer; and where we invest in creativity, experimentation, and research — serves humanity and furthers the common good,” the brief read.
The Trump administration’s funding freeze began in April, when federal agencies abruptly halted $2.2 billion in research funding to Harvard after the University opted to defy its demands. After Harvard filed suit on April 21, the administration expanded the freeze in May to include an additional $450 million and barred Harvard from receiving new federal awards.
In their filing, the alumni accused the administration of violating due process and using “bullying, coercion, and extortion” to pressure Harvard into compliance with political demands. They acknowledged that even if some federal demands were justified, such concerns must be addressed through proper legal procedures rather than punitive funding freezes.
“Values cannot be imposed by fiat,” the brief. “The heavy hand of the Government is incompatible with open inquiry, the pursuit of truth, and the academic freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
Federal judge Allison D. Burroughs — who is overseeing both of Harvard’s cases against the Trump administration — has not yet ruled on whether the alumni brief will be accepted.
The alumni did not ask to file a brief in support of Harvard’s second lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over its ability to host international students on campus. But in the brief, they endorsed Burroughs’ decision to block the DHS’ order.
Also on Monday, six additional schools — American University, Georgetown University, Stanford University, the University of Delaware, the University of Denver, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore — filed a motion seeking permission to join a Friday amicus brief submitted by 18 research institutions — including five Ivy League universities — in support of Harvard.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, 21 states, and Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist advocacy group, also filed proposed amici briefs on Monday — the last day to submit the briefs in support of Harvard.
The Monday filing comes as students and alumni rally behind the University. In the weeks since Harvard chose to defy the White House’s demands, alumni have donated in large numbers, and University President Alan M. Garber ’76 received standing ovations — and chants of “Garber!” — at both Commencement and Harvard Alumni Day last Friday.
Oral arguments for the case are scheduled for July 21. Supporters of the defendants have until June 23 to submit amici briefs.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
What Makes Harvard Great
What makes Harvard great is its people — and we are under assault.
Federal agencies have frozen billions of dollars of federal funding, floated revoking our tax-exempt status, threatened student visas, and now trumpeted an outright ban on Harvard’s enrolling international students.
The Trump administration has declared war on higher education. Harvard has become its biggest battleground.
On April 14, University President Alan M. Garber ’76 drew a line: “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.” That statement — the strongest yet from a University leader — energized our community and made Harvard a global symbol of resistance to Trump.
One could feel this defiant pride at Commencement last week, when thousands in Tercentenary Theater gave Garber a standing ovation. As longtime Harvard affiliates going back nearly four decades, we were among those standing. The only way to defeat the bullies is to fight back.
But the larger story is more complicated.
The same forces behind January 6th, book bans, anti-LGBTQ legislation, attacks on immigrants, and rollbacks on abortion rights and race-based affirmative action are driving the assault on higher education. Their real target is multicultural democracy and human freedom. These ongoing attacks on civil rights and critical thinking are part of a larger political and cultural backlash fueled by an unrelenting obsession with all things “DEI.”
We see the negative impacts of this here at Harvard. For several years, Harvard has proudly supported a growing number of student-centered events intentionally designed to complement the larger Commencement calendar by creating time and space to honor graduates from communities that have not always been welcome here. Far from segregating our community, these joyous, technicolor, University-wide gatherings celebrate our unapologetically global 21st-century Harvard.
In February, the U.S. Department of Education ordered colleges to purge “race-based decision-making.” In the face of this shameless political gaslighting and extortion, Harvard decided to pull funding, space, and staff support from the affinity graduations honoring Arab, Black, Latinx, first-gen, LGBTQ, Jewish, veteran, and disabled graduates. It also changed the name of the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to “Community and Campus Life.”
As faculty who have been centrally involved in fostering inclusion at Harvard, we were as stunned as our increasingly diverse alumni community by these tragically opaque decisions. Who was consulted? What problem did this decision solve? Is the defunding of these celebrations temporary or permanent? Strategy or submission? And what’s next?
In the absence of such information, we can only assume that these were not easy decisions — and we do not blame our friends and colleagues across this institution who are caught in the crosshairs of this vicious culture war. But understanding the complex constraints of our current crisis does not soften the blow of betrayal or make it any easier to be collateral damage. “One Harvard” will never be true or indivisible so long as any of us are treated as if we are dispensable.
At this perilous moment in history, Harvard must reaffirm its commitment to all its people without compromising any of its principles. “DEI” is not the empty acronym of conservative cultural caricature or the bureaucratic brainchild of renegade “wokeness.” Diversity, equity, and inclusion are values forged in historic struggles for justice that provide the strongest foundations we have for our loftiest aspirations. They are moral commitments that require resilient action.
A commitment to diversity means embracing difference and rejecting division. A commitment to equity means distributing resources fairly to help repair the worst effects of historical hoarding of wealth, power, and privilege. A commitment to inclusion means making space for everyone by building bridges and dismantling barriers between different kinds of people.
These are the values and actions that are required for multicultural democracy to work and for human freedom to flourish. The Trump administration’s assaults are not centrally about programs, policies, or protocols, though these are among the casualties. At their core, these assaults are meant to marginalize and muzzle the very people who make this country great, precisely because we have fought for so long to make this country better.
If Harvard abandons any of its people in this fight, it will lose this war.
Years ago, the late, great African American poet and LGBTQ activist Audre Lorde wrote “your silence will not protect you.” This simple and profound truth gives us a roadmap for times like these. Silence has never protected us, and yet silence lies all around us here at Harvard. We must break this silence, take up space, and speak our truth.
That is why we were so thrilled to see so many affinity celebrations take place this year, despite our University’s retreat and betrayal. Students organized them, alumni raised funds for them, faculty spoke at them, staff supported them, and neighbors offered space for them. This was creative, collective, cross-generational work that represents the very best of our campus and community life.
Harvard should celebrate the courage and commitment it takes to hold these celebrations, especially this year. It should also celebrate all of us. After all, we too are Harvard.
Evelynn M. Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, Professor of African and African American Studies, and former Dean of Harvard College. Timothy Patrick McCarthy ’93 is Lecturer on Education and Public Policy and Faculty Chair of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr-Ryan Center. They delivered the faculty keynote addresses at the 2025 Lavender Celebration.