Amid escalating battles over political bias in higher education, renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz declared Friday on Newsmax that universities have no legal right to use taxpayer dollars to bankroll political programs.
His comments came as the Trump administration reportedly slashed $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, citing allegations of antisemitism and pro-Hamas protests—a move Dershowitz vowed to defend against inevitable legal pushback.
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Speaking on The Record with Greta Van Susteren, the Harvard Law professor emeritus offered his legal firepower to the administration.
“There’s always going to be legal challenges. I want to volunteer publicly to defend the Trump administration … as long as there’s no interference with free speech and First Amendment rights,” Dershowitz said. “No college or university has the right to have taxpayer money fund its political programs. And so I think if there is a legal challenge, I will help defend it if I’m asked, and I think they will fail.”
The funding cut follows months of scrutiny over Columbia’s handling of campus unrest tied to Israel-Hamas tensions, with critics alleging the university tolerated antisemitic rhetoric.
Dershowitz framed it as part of a broader rot in academia, accusing external groups like Code Pink—allegedly backed by the Communist Party of China—of infiltrating campuses to “bring America down” under the guise of anti-Israel activism. “It’s all designed to destroy American higher education,” he charged, pointing to Code Pink’s presence at major universities.
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He didn’t stop there. Dershowitz claimed Qatar pumps “billions of dollars of conditional funds” into U.S. schools to hire biased professors, citing Yale Law School’s recent firing of an alleged Iranian spy in its “human rights program.”
“Yale Law School doesn’t have a human rights program. It has a human wrongs program, which is simply designed to promote leftist ideology,” he said, labeling such initiatives “anti-American, antisemitic, and anti-Western.”
The Trump administration’s move aligns with President Donald Trump’s broader crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Since reclaiming the White House, Trump has issued executive orders banning federal funding for DEI and related topics in schools and agencies, arguing they foster division.
A February 14 Department of Education memo threatened to defund institutions engaging in “racially discriminatory practices,” prompting defiance from some administrators and a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association. The suit claims the memo misrepresents laws on race in education.
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Dershowitz argued the root problem transcends “radical professors,” targeting bureaucratic programs like those teaching “intersectionality” as the “core” of anti-Western sentiment. “It has to be rooted out,” he insisted, framing taxpayer-funded academia as a battleground for national values.
Columbia’s funding cut—yet to be detailed publicly—drew swift reactions. The university called it “retaliatory” on X, vowing to fight back legally, while Trump allies like Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) cheered it as “long overdue.” On X, users split sharply—some hailed Dershowitz as a “truth-teller,” others dubbed him a “Trump stooge” pandering to power.
Legal experts predict a fierce court clash, with universities likely citing academic freedom and free speech—ironic, given Dershowitz’s caveat. For now, his Newsmax salvo signals a high-stakes showdown over who controls academia’s purse strings—and its soul—in Trump’s second term.
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