Harvard University wins dismissal of federal lawsuit over campus antisemitism

Anti-Israel protesters hold a rally at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

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Harvard University won dismissal of a federal lawsuit claiming that it had “turned a blind eye to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis,” marking another setback in the Trump administration’s campaign against the school.

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U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston ruled that the Justice Department didn’t sustain its claims that Harvard violated a civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students after the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.

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The U.S. focused “almost entirely” on the 2023-24 school year and cited only three incidents after that to support its claims that Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin, Stearns ruled Thursday.

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“Without diminishing any concern arising from these occurrences, the court finds them, singly and collectively, to be too isolated and episodic to support a plausible inference that any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day,” Stearns wrote in a four-page opinion.

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Harvard has been a top target of the Trump administration’s efforts to remake higher education. What began as criticism of the university’s handling of alleged antisemitism on campus following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza later broadened into a push to remake and gain oversight of Harvard’s admissions, hiring and governance.

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Federal agencies have also started several civil rights and other investigations into Harvard as part of the pressure campaign. While other schools including Columbia University and Brown University reached settlements with the administration over similar claims, Harvard hasn’t made such an agreement and has won court cases over the White House’s attempts to cut off federal research funding to the university and halt international student enrollment. The Trump administration is appealing the ruling over the funding.

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“We disagree with the ruling and are assessing next steps,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department, said in a statement. “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is actively investigating antisemitism nationwide. The Civil Rights Division has an extensive and active portfolio of antisemitism enforcement, including indictments, prosecutions, settlements, and investigations across the country.”

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Spokespeople for Harvard didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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In his opinion, Stearns said the government misconstrued the purpose of an enforcement action under Title VI.

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“Congress’s intent was not to penalize a wayward funding recipient but instead to incentivize it to bring itself into compliance with Title VI,” the judge wrote. “Even in the Government’s fevered forewarning of potential havoc, it concedes that its own hypothetical result is a positive, if roughly achieved, outcome.”

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The case is United States of America v. Harvard, 26-11352, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).

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