Comment by DarkmSparks

The government is giving them money, the letter is informing them they will stop funding them if those committing crimes (racism is the crime here) are not removed from offices of power within the institution.

So Harvards response is to vigorously defend their right to hire racist criminals. They of course have that right.

But the US Government is also well within their rights to no longer fund them anymore in that situation. Which I'm pretty sure will be the only hard outcome from Harvards response.

They absolutely have the right to not cooperate, the US govt has no obligation to fund racist crayon munching idiots.