Harvard Hires Conservative Lawyers to Fight Trump Administration

A former Texas solicitor general who argued in favor of abortion restrictions. Two former clerks to Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative members. And a one-time adviser to the Trump Organization.

These are a few of the conservative legal heavyweights Harvard University has hired to win a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The A-list squadron of Republican-aligned lawyers is a departure from the last time Harvard faced a headline-seizing legal fight. Back then, in 2022, Harvard was defending affirmative action and turned to a firm long associated with the university, WilmerHale.

But the Trump administration has scrambled the legal landscape.

Now WilmerHale is under attack by the administration itself and is fighting its own battle. And Harvard is facing down a fundamental threat after refusing a list of administration demands that included eliminating professors “more committed to activism than scholarship” and banning international students who oppose “American values.”

Unlike last time, it has billions of dollars in federal funds on the line if it loses.

Legal observers have said that Harvard stands a good chance of winning on the legal merits. Although the case could face headwinds if it reaches the Supreme Court, the roster of conservative-aligned lawyers was designed to give the university a boost in front of a court with a supermajority of Republican-appointed justices.

“This fits with a long tradition of clients trying to signal to the Supreme Court through the counsel that they hire that this is not Harvard liberal versus conservative administration,” said Aaron Tang, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. “This is academic freedom. It ought to appeal to someone across the political spectrum.”