The Trump administration has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status. This status allows Harvard to avoid paying income and property taxes, and donations to Harvard provide leftist billionaires with massive tax deductions for charitable contributions. In a flight of hyperbole, former Harvard president Larry Summers said, “Removal of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) status, which won’t happen because we are a nation of laws, would, if it did happen, devastate progress in medical and scientific research, maintenance of American and Western values, opportunity for the next generation of Americans and an important magnet for the United States in the world.” Earlier this week, the federal government cancelled over $2 billion in grants to Harvard; see Harvard Fools Around, Defies Trump Over DEI and Antisemitism—Finds Out It's Really, Really Expensive – RedState.

As that action gathers steam, the Department of Homeland Security is considering withdrawing Harvard's ability to matriculate foreign students. The concern here is the number of foreign students at Harvard who seem as interested in pro-Hamas demonstrations as they are in attending classes. On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem gave Harvard University a month to identify foreign students alleged to have engaged in “illegal and violent activities,” or lose its Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, allowing US universities to admit international students. This is not a minor inconvenience; foreign students pay full freight to attend Harvard and other schools, representing a significant financial loss to Harvard.

This episode, much like the ill-considered escalation of grievances by two nothing-burger federal judges into a low-level constitutional crisis, has its roots in hubris and Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Harvard was told that it had to eradicate the DEI filters it uses in admissions to bring its processes into compliance with federal law and Supreme Court rulings. It was also told to take positive action to suppress what appears to be an official policy of antisemitism, or at least pro-terrorism, by Harvard's administration. Fair dealing and protecting Jewish students from harassment and discrimination were just a bridge too far for Harvard President Alan Garber. "The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government," he huffed. "It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue."

He's missing the point. No one is requiring Harvard to do anything differently. The government is not threatening to take control. It is simply saying that if you wish to receive government benefits, you must comply with the same rules as any other educational institution and with federal law. Harvard's obeisance to DEI, for instance, runs up against two Supreme Court precedents. In Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard, the Supreme Court ruled that race was an impermissible factor in college admissions; see BREAKING: Supreme Court Rejects Race-Based College Admissions – RedState. The 1983 decision, Bob Jones University vs. United States, established that "The Government's fundamental, overriding interest in eradicating racial discrimination in education substantially outweighs whatever burden denial of tax benefits places on petitioners' exercise of their religious beliefs." 

If Harvard wants to discriminate based on race and allow pro-terrorist and antisemitic organizations to operate, it definitely has the right to do that. But it shouldn't pretend to be shocked when those decisions have painful consequences.

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