Here Is Why Harvard Argues That Trump's Funding Freeze Violates the First Amendment

To "maintain Harvard's financial relationship with the federal government," the General Services Administration, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services said in an April 11 letter to Harvard President Alan Garber, the university must implement a list of hiring, admission, administrative, curricular, and disciplinary reforms. "For at least a quarter-century," the Supreme Court observed in the 1972 case Perry v. Sindermann, "this Court has made clear that even though a person has no 'right' to a valuable governmental benefit and even though the government may deny him the benefit for any number of reasons, there are some reasons upon which the government may not rely. The Supreme Court also has held that the government violates the First Amendment when it uses "the threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion, persuasion, and intimidation" against third parties (in that case, book distributors) to "achieve the suppression" of speech it deems "objectionable."

Author: Jacob Sullum

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