Iowa AG Brenna Bird leads amicus brief supporting Trump administration’s Harvard funding cuts

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led a 16-state coalition filing an amicus brief Tuesday supporting the Trump administration’s efforts to cut some funding for Harvard University over reported claims of antisemitism on campus.

Bird, alongside 15 other attorneys general, filed the brief Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by Harvard University challenging the move to strip billions in federal funding from the institution. In April, President Donald Trump’s administration paused $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $50 million in multi-year contracts for Harvard.

While the funding cut follows reports of instances of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment on campus, the decision came after the administration demanded Harvard end its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, cooperate with immigration authorities and adopt merit-based admission standards or risk losing $9 billion in research funding — demands rejected by the university.

The federal lawsuit claims the federal government’s decision to slash funding for the university is being used as “leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard,” and argues the research funding being impacted by the cuts is unrelated to concerns about antisemitism. Attorneys for the university have also stated the funding cut is a violation of the First Amendment, as the government’s demands include potential restrictions on material that can be taught by Harvard faculty.

But in the amicus brief filed Tuesday, Bird and the other attorneys general said the claim that the Trump administration is violating the First Amendment is invalid. The filing points to a previous federal decision to strip tax-exempt status from Bob Jones University, affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983, because the institution was in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws by excluding Black applicants as students if they were in an interracial relationship or marriage beginning in 1975.

The brief cites the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias report filed in April by Harvard University as evidence that there were repeated instances of antisemitism and an “alienating and hostile atmosphere” experienced by Jewish and Israeli students at Harvard, particularly in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against Israel.

“Harvard has failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students on its campus since at least October 7, 2023,” the brief states. “… Harvard invokes the First Amendment to distract from its failure to protect Jewish students in violation of Title IV, which the federal government cited as its reason for freezing funding. But the bottom line is that the First Amendment does not allow institutions to violate Title VI. Universities that accept federal funding must live up to their obligations to protect Jewish students, just like they protect students of other nationalities, ethnicities, and religions.”

Bird was joined in the brief by the attorneys general for Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas.

In a news release, Bird said she and the other state officials “stand firmly with the Trump Administration and against antisemitism,” adding, “but Harvard does not.”

“When President Trump acted to fix the rampant antisemitism on Harvard’s campus by restricting federal funding, Harvard sued,” Bird said in a statement. “Harvard itself admits that antisemitism both exists and is a problem on its campus but is unwilling to address the issue. Jewish students deserve equal protection and access to education which is why I led a 16-state coalition to support President Trump’s actions.”