Two wrongs don’t usually make a right. Yet in the standoff between Harvard University and the federal government, that’s exactly where we find ourselves — trapped between Harvard’s history of broken promises and the federal government’s lawless threats.

It didn’t have to be this way. This slow-motion car-wreck has been occurring for decades. Our nation’s oldest university has spent years systematically undermining the principles of free speech and academic freedom that it claims to cherish.

Harvard has ranked dead last, two years in a row, in the College Free Speech Rankings published annually by my organization. Most recently, it placed 251st out of 251 surveyed universities, earning an “Abysmal” rating for its campus speech climate.

Yet as bad as Harvard’s failures may be, the Trump administration’s response is even worse.

The administration has frozen billions of dollars of Harvard’s federal funding in an effort to pressure the university into censoring disfavored views and surrendering its independence. That’s unlawful and unconstitutional.

Although Harvard isn’t entitled to federal funding, it — like everyone else — is entitled to a government that follows the law. Federal anti-discrimination law does not permit Washington to unilaterally cancel funding, as the administration has done here.

The First Amendment also bars the government from coercing private institutions into censorship. Courts have long held that the government cannot manipulate its funding to punish or silence ideas it dislikes. Yet that is precisely what’s happening now.

Taken together, the Trump administration’s actions look less like........

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