Harvard, MIT Use Law To Limit Legal Payouts While Sitting On Endowments Worth Billions

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have leaned on a century-old law to avoid paying out large sums in lawsuits despite having billion-dollar endowments, legal records show.President Donald Trump has accused Harvard of abusing its Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax-exempt status in his ongoing battle against the Ivy League over antisemitism concerns and a lack of ideological diversity. But one advantage of nonprofit status has gone under the radar: Harvard and MIT exploit a state law capping tort claims against charities at $20,000, despite overseeing world-class investment firms managing endowments of $53.2 billion and $24.6 billion, respectively.“If...