BOSTON — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration accusing Harvard University of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from antisemitic harassment, ruling that the government had not plausibly shown an ongoing violation of federal civil rights law.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns said the incidents cited by the Justice Department were too isolated and episodic to establish that Harvard was continuing to violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, according to the ruling reported by Reuters.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in March, alleging that Harvard had been deliberately indifferent to antisemitic and anti-Israeli harassment on campus following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The department alleged that Harvard selectively enforced campus rules and failed to adequately protect Jewish and Israeli students.
The government sought an order requiring Harvard to comply with Title VI and sought recovery of federal funds it said the university had received while violating the law. The Justice Department said Harvard had more than $2.6 billion in active grants from the Department of Health and Human Services when it filed the case.
Harvard had asked Stearns to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the government's allegations relied largely on incidents from the 2023-24 academic year and did not account for measures the university had subsequently adopted to address antisemitism.
In a filing supporting its motion, Harvard said it had strengthened campus conduct policies, clarified rules governing protests and dissent, expanded efforts to educate students about antisemitism and worked with Jewish community members on campus safety.
The lawsuit formed part of a broader confrontation between Harvard and the Trump administration over the university's handling of antisemitism and other campus policies. The administration had separately moved to restrict Harvard's federal funding and international-student enrollment, while Harvard challenged those actions in court.
The ruling does not establish that antisemitic incidents did not occur at Harvard. Rather, Stearns found that the allegations before him did not sufficiently demonstrate a continuing institutional violation of Title VI, according to Reuters and other reports of the decision.
The latest ruling leaves the Justice Department's lawsuit dismissed. The department and Harvard had not immediately issued public statements on the decision in the reports available Thursday.
