Donald Trump’s effort to stop Harvard from enrolling international students is unconstitutional and illegal and will be blocked by the courts in short order. However, what’s at stake is much greater than visas for foreign students.
Trump is trying to break the world’s leading university because he knows that higher education — everywhere — is one of the bulwarks of a free society devoted to pursuing truth without fear or favor. If Trump can impose his will on Harvard, the most important nongovernmental institution that’s stood up to him, he will be one step closer to the dictator’s dream of forcing his own version of reality on the entirety of American society.
The legal story here is straightforward. Following Trump’s violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights by demanding that it submit to supervision of its faculty and curriculum, the Department of Homeland Security demanded the university produce data about its international students, their participation in protests and any evidence they had committed illegal acts.
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