Noah Feldman, Columnist

Harvard Is Fighting for Much More Than Foreign Students

If the president succeeds in defeating the most powerful nongovernmental institution to stand up to him, he’ll be able to take down any university he goes after.

May 23, 2025 at 3:45 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Fighting for more than itself.
Photographer: Sophie Park/Getty Images North America

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Donald Trump’s effort to stop Harvard from enrolling international students is unconstitutional and illegal and was quickly blocked by the courts. 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.