Not to Mention Quinn Emanuel
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is a top ranked business litigation law firm. King & Spalding is a top corporate and litigation firm; one good source ranks them as #24. Here is the letter that two of their partners signed on behalf of Harvard and sent to Team Trump:
April 14, 2025
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Josh Gruenbaum
Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service General ServicesAdministration
Sean R. Keveney Acting General Counsel
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Thomas E. Wheeler Acting GeneralCounsel
U.S. Department of Education
Dear Messrs. Gruenbaum, Keveney, and Wheeler:
We represent Harvard University. We are writing in response to your letter dated April 11, 2025, addressed toDr. Alan Garber, Harvard’s President, and Penny Pritzker, Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation.
Harvard is committed to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in its community. Antisemitism and discrimination of any kind not only are abhorrent and antithetical to Harvard’s values but also threaten its academicmission.
To that end, Harvard has made, and will continue to make, lasting and robust structural, policy, and programmatic changes to ensure that the university is a welcoming and supportive learning environment for allstudents and continues to abide in all respects with federal law across its academic programs and operations, whilefostering open inquiry in a pluralistic community free from intimidation and open to challenging orthodoxies,whatever their source.
Over the past 15 months, Harvard has undertaken substantial policy and programmatic measures. It hasmade changes to its campus use policies; adopted new accountability procedures; imposed meaningful discipline for those who violate university policies; enhanced programs designed to address bias and promote ideological diversity and civil discourse; hired staff to support these programs and support students; changed partnerships; dedicatedresources to combat hate and bias; and enhanced safety and security measures. As a result, Harvard is in a verydifferent place today from where it was a year ago. These efforts, and additional measures the university will be taking against antisemitism, not only are the right thing to do but also are critical to strengthening Harvard’scommunity as a place in which everyone can thrive.
It is unfortunate, then, that your letter disregards Harvard’s efforts and instead presents demands that, incontravention of the First Amendment, invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court. The government’s terms also circumvent Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies foralleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law. No less objectionable is the condition, first made explicit in the letter of March 31, 2025, that Harvard accede to these terms or risk the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding critical to vital research and innovation that has saved and improved lives and allowed Harvard to play a central role in making our country’sscientific, medical, and other research communities the standard-bearers for the world. These demands extend notonly to Harvard but to separately incorporated and independently operated medical and research hospitals engaging in life-saving work on behalf of their patients. The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle.
Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond thelawful authority of this or any administration.
William A. Burck Robert K. Hur
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP King & Spalding LLP
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Facing MAGA 