Rice to support Harvard in lawsuit against research funding freeze

By James Cancelarich     6/6/25 8:42pm

Rice, alongside 17 other research universities, requested a federal judge for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over more than $2 billion in frozen research grants.

The request was granted by a judge presiding over Harvard’s case in a U.S. district court in Massachusetts on Friday. The universities have not yet filed the brief.

Amicus curiae, or ‘friend of the court’ briefs, are legal documents filed by third parties that allow them to speak on the subject matter of the case.

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The Trump administration, with its repeated targeting of higher education, sent Harvard a letter April 11 alleging, among other things, that Harvard’s admissions practices were discriminatory and the university had not done enough to deter antisemitism on campus.

Harvard rebuked a set of demands placed on it by the Trump Administration, with Harvard President Alan Garber calling them “unprecedented demands being made by the federal government to control the Harvard Community.” The Trump administration then froze over $2 billion of Harvard’s federal grant money.

Harvard then filed its lawsuit April 21, alleging the funding freeze was unlawful.

In the motion to file the amicus curiae brief, Rice, alongside a number of Ivy League schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, argued that the Trump Administration’s actions “inflict grievous harm that extends well beyond Harvard University.”

“The cuts will disrupt ongoing research, ruin experiments and datasets, destroy the careers of aspiring scientists, and deter long-term investments at universities across the country,” the motion read.

In addition, the motion referred to some of the work of research universities as “vital to American competitiveness and leadership.”

“Each institution has received millions of dollars in federal investments in scientific research over the decades,” the motion read. “Together with private donations and their own investments, the universities have put those resources to work, conducting fundamental research that has advanced scientific knowledge.”

In February, Provost Amy Dittmar submitted testimony to a case involving research funding cuts from the National Institutes of Health, making many of the same points found in the brief. 

“Slowdowns or halts in research by Rice and other American universities will allow competitor nations that are maintaining their investments in research to surpass the United States on this front, threatening both our Nation’s national security and its economic dominance,” Dittmar wrote in her testimony.

In a May 6 letter to the campus community, President Reggie DesRoches said universities would continue research efforts despite fiscal uncertainty.

“In a moment like this, it’s important to remember that universities are built for times of change and uncertainty,” DesRoches wrote. “We generate new ideas and solutions, we question assumptions, and we adapt with purpose. We are resilient.”

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