Afrasianet - Harvard University has filed a lawsuit to prevent President Donald Trump from freezing billions of dollars in federal funding after the prestigious think tank rejected a list of demands for the White House, saying it would undermine its independence.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, said Trump was "launching a widespread attack on funding for advanced research at major universities as he seeks to purge them of what he says is anti-Semitism and ideological bias."

"This case concerns the government's efforts to use withholding federal funding as leverage to control Harvard's academic decision-making," the lawsuit said.

Harvard is the first university to file a lawsuit in response to Trump's campaign.

"The Trump administration's actions are arbitrary, illegal and violate the university's right to freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment," the university says.

The university's president, Alan Garber, said in a statement about the lawsuit that the foundation "will continue to fight hate and fully comply with anti-discrimination laws, which Trump has accused of violating in its handling of pro-Palestinian protests."

"Instead of cooperating with Harvard in the fight against anti-Semitism, as the Civil Rights Act requires, the government seeks to control who we appoint and educate."

Some Harvard faculty are suing the Trump administration separately from the university, as have some Columbia professors, citing reasons similar to those given by Harvard.

The lawsuit included the names of a number of federal officials and agencies, such as the ministries of health, energy and education.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement that "easy profit from federal aid" to institutions like Harvard is coming to an end, adding that "taxpayer money is a privilege, and Harvard University does not meet the basic conditions necessary to obtain this privilege."

Since his inauguration, Trump has cracked down on prestigious U.S. universities , saying they "mishandled last year's pro-Palestinian protests and allowed anti-Semitism to fester on campus." 

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say their criticism of the Gaza genocide is "mistakenly confused with anti-Semitism".

The Trump administration began  reviewing $9 billion in federal funding for Harvard in March, and then gave the university a list of demands, including banning masks and ending all diversity, equality and inclusion programs.

Since then, the Trump administration has frozen $2.3 billion in funding for Harvard and threatened to scrap its tax exemption and ability to accept foreign students. It also demanded information on the university's external relations, funding, students and faculty.

The Trump administration has also withheld some funding from universities such as Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Brown because of the protests.