A group of 18 leading US research universities, including Princeton, MIT, Caltech and Johns Hopkins, asked a federal judge for permission to file legal arguments in support of Harvard University in its high-stakes showdown with the Trump administration over more than $2 billion in frozen grant money.

Since its initial criticism of Harvard as a place where antisemitism was condoned or ignored during last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests, the government’s list of complaints about the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university has grown by the day.