Multistate Amicus Brief Highlights Devastating Impact of Retaliatory Federal Funding Freeze on Local and State Economies

Attorney General Dan Rayfield today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, supporting Harvard University’s motion for summary judgment in litigation against a number of federal agencies for their unlawful cancellation of more than $2 billion in federal funding to the university.

“We’ve already seen them come after our research funding in Oregon. This isn’t just about Harvard, it’s about whether the federal government can use funding to punish schools for standing up for their values,” said Rayfield. “Research dollars don’t just stay in labs, they fuel local jobs, innovation, and medical breakthroughs that benefit all of us.”

On April 11, the Administration identified a series of demands that Harvard University must satisfy in order to receive federal research funding that had already been committed to the school. Harvard rightly refused to relinquish its academic independence, and the federal government subsequently announced that it was freezing over $2 billion in federal funding to the university. Harvard has since filed a lawsuit against the Administration, and the university is requesting that a judge make an expedited ruling on the merits of the case without a full trial. The brief of the attorneys general supports Harvard in that effort.

In the brief, Attorney General Rayfield argues that the Administration’s punitive and unlawful funding freeze, which poses an unprecedented threat to Harvard, would have devastating spillover effects on the amici states’ economies if their research institutions were targeted in the same way.

Joining Attorney General Rayfield in submitting this brief, are the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.