Harvard sues Trump administration to protect international students

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Updated May 23, 2025 at 8:39 a.m. EDT


Harvard University filed a lawsuit Friday morning against the Trump administration, challenging the abrupt federal revocation of the school’s ability to enroll international students.

On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard University’s certification to admit foreign students, escalating President Donald Trump’s pitched battle with the Ivy League school.
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The revocation was the latest in a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard, university president Alan Garber said in a letter to the campus community Friday morning, “for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body. “We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,” he wrote.

Garber said Harvard would seek a temporary restraining order to block the revocation. The DHS action would put about 7,000 students at immediate risk of losing their visa status.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/05/23/harvard-lawsuit-international-students-trump-administration/

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Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/05/Harvard-Visa-Complaint.pdf


Article updated.

Original article/headline -

Harvard will sue Trump administration to protect international students

May 23, 2025 at 8:26 a.m. EDT


Harvard University said it planned to file a lawsuit Friday morning against the Trump administration, challenging the abrupt federal revocation of the school's ability to enroll international students.

On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard University's certification to admit foreign students, escalating President Donald Trump's pitched battle with the Ivy League school.

The revocation was the latest in a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard, university president Alan Garber said in a letter to the campus community Friday morning, "for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government's illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body. "We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action," he wrote.

Garber said Harvard would seek a temporary restraining order to block the revocation. The DHS action would put about 7,000 students at immediate risk of losing their visa status.

[dutch777]

1. Don't know that Harvard will suffer the most, but many colleges only keep afloat by foreign students paying full price

One has to believe just the GOP rhetoric about foreign students is giving many pause about wanting to study in the US and that will really challenge many less well funded colleges to balance their budgets without raising in state and other US student tuition fees. Another de facto tariff/tax on us.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. There was a California court ruling with a nationwide injunction

on messing with international students - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143464153

[no_hypocrisy]

3. It's almost June. And almost all colleges have their slots filled for September.

And where will doctoral international students find replacement programs in other colleges and universities at this time?

[LisaL]

4. They won't find replacement programs.

Graduate programs already made offers of admission to students by now. So very few of Harvard students will manage to transfer anywhere.

[onenote]

5. What's impressive is the speed in which Harvard's lawyers put together the complaint and TRO request

Its a nearly 60 page motion for a temporary restraining order with over 50 case citations. The lead law firm filing it is headed by an attorney who previously worked for the US Chamber of Commerce and clerked for Justice Scalia. He also was a lawyer at WilmerHale, one of the firms that has chosen to fight, rather than capitulate to, Trump's attacks on law firms. Other members of that team include lawyers that served as clerks for Kavanaugh and Kennedy and worked as WilmerHale. They are supported by Jenner & Block, another firm that has spit in the eye of Trump's law firm executive orders and Quinn Emanuel, a firm that previously had shied away from taking on the Trump administration. The lawyers from those two firms include former clerks for Justices Kennedy and Stevens.

In short, Harvard has put together a team of super lawyers that have close ties to the Supreme Court and to both Republican and Democratic administrations.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I figured if they were going to act that it was going to be fast

as they had leisurely allowed the hearing of the grant cancels to be delayed until July IIRC (but I doubted that they were otherwise idle in the interim and were obviously getting all their ducks in a row, anticipating any type of scenario).

[Paladin]

7. Harvard ought to get really serious about this idiocy.

How about a public announcement, banning all trump family members---no matter how remotely related---from attendance at Harvard in any way, shape or form, for the next 100 years? Have that edict carved in marble and placed in the most prominent location on campus, for all to see.

This disgusting regime seems hell-bent on a national war. Maybe we ought to make it happen.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I don't think any of them have gone there

They seem to prefer UPenn.

[Paladin]

10. Trust me on this: They'd become BIG Harvard fans, if they were banned. (nt)

[BumRushDaShow]

11. His family

has NEVER been accepted by the blue blood/elite class, and in particular, the New England crowd, which is why he hangs out with the "nouveau riche" tech and crypto bros.

[Mysterian]

8. Harvard vs. imbecile Noem

This will be funny.