Harvard University has sued to block US President Donald Trump from freezing billions of dollars in federal funding after the elite research institution rejected a list of White House demands that it said would undermine its independence, Reuters reports.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston said Trump has launched a broad attack on funding for cutting-edge research at major universities as he seeks to rid them of what he describes as anti-Semitism and ideological bias.

“This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard,” the lawsuit said.

Harvard alleges the Trump administration’s actions were arbitrary and unlawful and violated the university’s First Amendment rights to free speech.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that the “gravy train of federal assistance” to institutions like Harvard was coming to an end.

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