Setback for Trump admin: Judge dismisses lawsuit against Harvard for tolerating antisemitism

A federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration against Harvard University for allegedly allowing antisemitism on its campus, arguing that it was not proven that the university violated any provision of the civil rights law.

The lawsuit, filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in March, alleged that Harvard University committed acts of "discrimination based on race" by tolerating "antisemitic mobs of students, faculty, and visitors allegedly expressing their opposition to Israel by assaulting, harassing, and intimidating Jewish and Israeli students."

This Thursday, District Judge Richard G. Stearns of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a ruling in which he found that the Trump administration had failed to demonstrate that Harvard University had violated a provision of the law prohibiting discrimination based on race, national origin and other protected characteristics.

The DOJ detailed in its complaint that the occasionally violent protests that took place at various universities across the country, including Harvard, in response to Israel's reaction to the Oct. 7 massacre committed by the terrorist group Hamas, were authorized by the university, which the DOJ alleged was "deliberately indifferent" to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.

After the lawsuit was filed, Judge Stearns considered a motion by Harvard to dismiss the case, ruling on Thursday that the acts detailed by the Trump administration were "too isolated and episodic" to prove that the university had violated the law.