Analysts: Trump’s action on Harvard, Columbia could have implications for religious groups

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Some of the steps the Trump administration has taken toward secular universities could also have long-term implications for religious universities and organizations, analysts told OSV News.

The Trump administration has targeted some of the nation’s top higher education institutions including Harvard and Columbia, alleging those universities failed to respond to antisemitic incidents during pro-Palestinian student demonstrations on campuses in the wake of Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

Among other actions, Trump has sought to require Harvard to submit to a federal audit of its hiring. Trump has also indicated he would like to rescind the university’s tax-exempt status, prompting concern from other nonprofits.

Some charities and nonprofits are exempt from taxation, and churches and other religious organizations have long been understood to be among those exempt from paying taxes under the First Amendment.

Merrill Matthews, a public policy analyst and columnist for The Hill, told OSV News that Harvard’s Divinity School was not exempt from the Trump administration’s demand to review Harvard’s hiring decisions, which could have implications for religious freedom for religiously affiliated colleges.

“The administration is overstepping its bounds by trying to impose restrictions where Harvard needs to send the federal government (information about) who its professors are,” he said, arguing that if the government can impose “viewpoint diversity” on colleges it could impede the ability of some religious colleges to limit its faculty and staff to co-religionists, and that a hypothetical future administration could similarly take steps to implement such policies at religious colleges or “even at Catholic seminaries, evangelical seminaries, that are going to be fairly strict on some of their ideas.”

The Trump administration’s moves toward Harvard appear to reflect some of the president’s other policy positions. A White House fact sheet said, “Harvard has persisted in prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in its admissions, denying hardworking Americans equal opportunities by favoring certain groups.” In May, Trump suggested that about $3 billion in research grants and contracts with Harvard could be redistributed to trade schools.

Trump signed a proclamation June 4 to deny visas for foreign students seeking to come to the U.S. to study at Harvard University.

“Our adversaries, including the People’s Republic of China, try to take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States,” the proclamation said.

Jewish Insider reported June 4 that some members of Harvard’s Jewish community are “still worried” about antisemitism on campus — but that the community also is impacted by the Trump administration’s move to restrict international students and cuts to research grants. About 160 of Harvard’s international students are from Israel, that outlet reported, and will be affected by Trump’s ban on foreign students from there.

Tyler Coward, lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, told OSV News, “We’ve been vocal critics of Harvard and of the way that the president and his administration have treated Harvard, and it’s a weird place to be.”

FIRE, which ranks major U.S. universities for their free speech policies, said Harvard University was the lowest-ranked institution for free speech for two consecutive years.

But the Trump administration is “behaving unlawfully” toward Harvard, Coward also said, saying the administration did not follow appropriate legal processes in freezing its federal funds.

“It’s not difficult to imagine a different president using this authority — if it were allowed to stand — to target any number of institutions, religious or not, that they might disagree with,” Coward said.

Matthews added he is particularly concerned about a threat to the university’s tax-exempt status, because “if you can do it to Harvard, you could do it to other schools, and there are a lot of churches out there that have schools connected to them, and if you were to pull their tax status and they had to start (paying taxes), then they might be responsible for property taxes and other things that becomes a real burden on the church.”

“I would encourage the administration to pull back on some of those (moves), go specifically to the point that it’s trying to address, which is antisemitism, and relate any funding withholding to the antisemitism and the university’s response to antisemitism and the notion that you’re trying to create a good academic environment so that everybody can learn,” Matthews said.

In an April letter, Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, wrote to the school’s community that “we have made it abundantly clear that we do not take lightly our moral duty to fight antisemitism,” and that the university would pursue legal action about the administration’s efforts.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber wrote. “The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI.”

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