The AAMC joined the American Council on Education and 25 other higher education organizations in an amicus brief supporting Harvard University’s legal challenge (PDF) to the administration’s various funding freezes and terminations dating back to April 2025.
The brief, filed in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, urges affirmance of the District Court’s summary judgment against the administration’s funding freeze orders, grant termination letters, and other actions that sought to block federal funding to Harvard.
The brief asserts that the administration’s actions unlawfully interfere with Harvard’s institutional autonomy, amounting to government suppression of disfavored viewpoints. It also notes that academic freedom, protected by the First Amendment, has fueled this nation’s preeminence in research and innovation, cultivating generations of leaders. Affirming the lower court’s ruling against the administration is necessary, the brief argues, to protect “the richness of the spectrum of higher education that has long been one of our country’s greatest strengths.”