Attorney General Tong Supports Harvard University's Challenge to the Trump Administration's Retaliatory Federal Funding Freeze

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06/09/2025

Attorney General Tong Supports Harvard University's Challenge to the Trump Administration's Retaliatory Federal Funding Freeze

Multistate Amicus Brief Highlights Devastating Impact of Retaliatory Federal Funding Freeze on Local and State Economies

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, supporting Harvard University’s motion for summary judgment in litigation against a number of federal agencies for their unlawful cancellation of more than $2 billion in federal funding to the university.

“Today it’s Harvard. Tomorrow it could be any one of us. Because this is about so much more than one single university. This is about an untethered and vengeful President seizing our taxpayer dollars to punish anyone who dares challenge his lies, his authority, or his ego. It is unlawful, and deeply damaging to our country,” said Attorney General Tong.

On April 11, the Administration identified a series of demands that Harvard University must satisfy in order to receive federal research funding that had already been committed to the school. Harvard rightly refused to relinquish its academic independence, and the federal government subsequently announced that it was freezing over $2 billion in federal funding to the university. Harvard has since filed a lawsuit against the Administration, and the university is requesting that a judge make an expedited ruling on the merits of the case without a full trial. The brief of the attorneys general supports Harvard in that effort.

In the brief, Tong argues that the Administration’s punitive and unlawful funding freeze, which poses an unprecedented threat to Harvard, would have devastating spillover effects on the amici states’ economies if their research institutions were targeted in the same way.

Joining Attorney General Tong in submitting this brief, which was led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, are the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

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