> MIT is taking (lots of) money from federal government. That makes them dependent on the government and government is within its right to attach strings to the

> MIT is taking (lots of) money from federal government. That makes them dependent on the government and government is within its right to attach strings to the money. Governments do not have rights (except in a metaphorical sense in relations with other governments, which doesn't apply here), so it is impossible for a government to be “within its rights” when interacting with an entity to subject to its governance. It may be within legal exercise of its powers, but that is a very a very different thing than rights, and in any case there is a very good argument that the compact is not only unlawful as an exercise of government power, but that accepting and complying with it would require universities to act in conflict with existing federal civil rights laws which provide for private causes of actions against perpetrators.