Beyond Harvard’s Lawsuit: New Compact Sets Stage for Epic Legal War Over Academic Freedom

While Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration marked the first major legal battle in this conflict, the new nine-university “compact” sets the stage for a far broader and more epic legal war over the future of academic freedom. The sweeping and explicit nature of the compact’s demands raises fundamental constitutional questions that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.
The new legal challenges would likely go far beyond the scope of Harvard’s initial suit. The compact’s demand to “scrap” academic departments based on their viewpoint is a potential case of direct viewpoint discrimination by the government, a clear First Amendment issue. Lawyers would argue that the government cannot use funding to purge ideas it dislikes from the public square, including a university campus.
Another major legal front would be the doctrine of “unconstitutional conditions.” This legal principle holds that the government cannot condition a benefit (like federal funding) on the recipient’s surrender of a constitutional right (like free speech or equal protection). Universities could argue that the compact forces them to give up their First Amendment rights to academic freedom and their ability to create a diverse student body, making the conditions attached to the funding unconstitutional.
The demand to control private endowments would open up yet another line of attack, based on property rights and contract law. The notion that accepting federal research grants gives the government control over a university’s private, donated assets is a radical legal theory that would almost certainly be challenged as an overreach of the federal government’s spending power.
If even one of the nine targeted universities decides to fight back in court, it would trigger a landmark legal case. The battle would move from the court of public opinion to the nation’s highest courts, forcing a definitive ruling on the limits of government power over higher education and the constitutional status of academic freedom in the 21st century.