The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston said Trump has launched a broad attack on funding for cutting-edge research at major universities as he seeks to rid them of what he describes as antisemitism and ideological bias.
The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal court, asks a judge to block the funding freeze from going into effect, arguing the move is "unlawful and beyond the government's authority."
"All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: Allow the Government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution's ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions," Harvard's lawyers wrote.
The US Department of Education froze over $3.2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University just hours after the school rejected President Donald Trump's demands to make policy changes on diversity.
A Department of Education task force on combating antisemitism said that it was freezing $US2.2 billion ($A3.5 billion) in multi-year grants and $US60 million ($A95 million) in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.
The move marks a new level of contentiousness between President Donald Trump's administration and American universities it accuses of being captured by the extreme left.
Trump's administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for numerous prestigious universities, pressing the institutions to make policy and other changes and citing what it says is a failure to fight antisemitism on campus.
With Reuters.
