[REVISED] Harvard stands up to Trump. The university's motto is "Veritas" (Truth). Will Truth prevail, or fascism?
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In Praise of Harvard
Today, I am feeling very proud of Harvard University and my affiliations with the institution. I hold the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science in International Law (S.J.D.) from Harvard, where I was also a Lecturer on Law teaching a course on transitions from authoritarian rule in Latin America. I was also Associate Director for International Programs at the Center for Criminal Justice (CCJ), at Harvard Law School (HLS), and a Visiting Scholar at what was then known simply as the Center for International Affairs (CFIA).
Harvard is a fantastic university where the most brilliant students and professors come from all over the world.
Today, I am proud of Harvard, as all Americans should be.
At a time when so many law firms, politicians, and business leaders are bowing down before Donald Trump and caving into the imperious demands of an autocratic leader who believes he is not subject to the constraints of law, today one of the leading institutions in America, despite some initial hesitations, finally stood up for the rule of law, for Truth (its motto), for democracy, and for the principles enshrined in the Constitution upon which this country was founded.
One associates to that moment in the Army-McCarthy hearings when Joseph Welch confronted Senator Joseph McCarthy, exclaiming, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?“
One awaits the day when men and women of stature will say those words to Donald Trump.
One might hope that Harvard’s standing up toTrump today will start an avalanche of truth in which more and more people will stand up and say those words toTrump.
Sadly, Stanford University, that other great university with which I have close ties (undergraduate, law school, and an advanced degree in comparative law), has until now remained silent, despite the outcries of former deans and leaders of the university. History Professor Gordon A. Craig, the preeminent historian of Germany under whom at Stanford I studied the history of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, would undoubtedly be appalled at Stanford’s silence in the face of the current fascist threat. So would Law Professor Gerald Gunther, the leading constitutional scholar of his generation, under whom I studied Constitutional Law. Gunther with his family was forced to flee his small town in Germany when he was nine years old, after the anti-Jewish pogrom on Kristallnacht, November 8-9, 1938.
The motto of Stanford is “Die Luft der Freiheit weht, which is often translated as “The winds of Freedom blow”.
Let us hope that Stanford, inspired by its own traditions and the magnificent example of Harvard, will soon stand up to Trump, in solidarity with Harvard and all the other universities which are currently under assault by our authoritarian leader, President Donald J.Trump.
At Stanford, following Harvard’s example, may the winds of freedom blow.
UPDATE: STANFORD’S PRESIDENT AND PROVOST BACK HARVARD
See,
1) George Porteous, “Levin and Martinez express support for Harvard amid funding fight with Trump administration,” The Stanford Daily, Published April 15, 2025, 12:33 a.m., last updated April 16, 2025, 9:05 a.m.
***
Harvard stands up to Trump
BACKGROUND
1)Tyler Pager, Andrew Druehen, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan,“Trump Threatens Harvard’s Tax Status, Escalating Billion-Dollar Pressure Campaign; Harvard has rejected an effort by the White House to exert more control over its programs. Federal law prohibits the president from telling the I.R.S. to conduct specific tax investigations,” New York Times, April 15, 2025 (5:44 p.m.).
2) M.Gessen, “Harvard’s Strength and How Far We’ve Fallen So Quickly, New York Times, April 14, 2025.
3) James Rowles, “America as a police state,” Trenchant Observations, April 2, 2025.
4) Adam Unikowsky, “Why My Firm Is Standing Up for the Constitution; Big Law should remain independent rather than have the government dictate who it represents,” The Atlantic, April 14, 2025 (10:25 am).
On FridayApril 11, 2025, the Trump administration sent Harvard University a list of demands which amounted to the government telling Harvard how to run its admissions, who to hire and even in some instances what courses to teach. The letter represented an unprecedented effort by the federal government to dictate how a private university is run.
On April 14, 2025, Harvard stood up to Trump and rejected his demands.
A leading American institution stood up to the authoritarian bully who is the current U.S. President, and called his bluff. Trump is currently leading a fascist attempt to take over the government and to render the Constitution meaningless.
Yet Trump, who trades in fear and lies, is not likely to fare so well in the courts against Harvard, which trades in reason, truth, and law.
The Trump administration’s war against Harvard, speciously and cynically justified as fighting antisemitism, is but one piece of Trump’s larger project of seizing power and assuming the unchecked power of a dictator.
What is the legal authority for the president to suspend contracts, extort law firms and universities, and issue ukases (peremptory orders) like Josef Stalin or Adolf Hitler.? We have a Constitution. Trump is blatantly abusing his emergency powers, which are not properly invoked given the facts and the actual reality he is labeling a “national emergency”.
Trump is defying the courts and the Supreme Court’s mandate that he “facilitate” the return to the United States from El Salvador of Kilmar Abrego García, who was detained and deported with absolutely no due process, in flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.
This action alone and Trump’s refusal to “facilitate” Abrego García’s return to the U.S. as ordered by the Supreme Court constitute sufficient “high crimes and misdemeanors” to impeach him and remove him from office.
What are the Democrats and responsible Republicans in the House of Representatives waiting for? The 2026 elections? The 2028 elections?
It is the Democrats and their cowardice —in failing to indict and prosecute Trump in a timely manner, in failing to impeach him on broad charges in his first term—who are responsible along with the Republicans in the Congress for the perilous situation which we currently face.
In the meantime, Trump, who is reliably reported to be a “Russian asset” is acting for Putin in Ukraine. Let us be clear. Zelensky was in no way responsible, not even a little bit, for Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Donald Trump today cozies up to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, which probably has the worst human rights record in Latin America. He cozies up to war criminals like Putin and Netanyahu.
We know Trump and his program. We know he is a Russian asset acting to further Putin’s goals.
We don’t need any new evidence, like the attacks on civilians in Suma. We have seen Bucha. We have seen Russians bomb schools, theaters, hospitals and other civilian targets. We have seen the depravity of Russian soldiers who painted “for the children”on the bombs they used to destroy schools and kill children. We know Putin is responsible for the murder of his opponents, like Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny.
We know that, at every turn, Trump is helping Putin. We know that the U.S. is not supplying any new military aid to Ukraine, or even talking about it.
Domestically, Trump is running a police state, with his lawless detentions, abductions, and expulsions of individuals with no due process, in blatant violation of the Constitution.
House members should begin an impeachment investigation. And start preparing for a long and very public trial in the Senate.
Trump must be removed from office.
That will take the votes of Republican senators. But it will take only the votes of three Republican House members, three “profiles in courage”, to start the process by opening an impeachment investigation
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson must be made to understand that he will not survive as Speaker, with no Democratic votes, if he refuses to bring such a resolution to the floor.
FURTHER READING
1) James Rowles, “"IMPEACHMENT" -- the word nobody can say” Trenchant Observations, April 4, 2025.
2)James Rowles, “Trump’s illegal use of emergency powers to circumvent the Constitution and the law,” Trenchant Observations, April 12, 2025.
3) Erwin Chemerinsky and Laurence H. Tribe, “We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid,” New York Times, April 9, 2025.
***
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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