Federal Judge Dismisses Department of Justice’s Antisemitism Lawsuit Against Harvard

A federal judge has dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit against Harvard University that claimed the school failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled that the occurrences outlined in the lawsuit were too “isolated and episodic” to constitute an ongoing violation of non-compliance under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The judge acknowledged that this ruling should not be seen as “diminishing any concern arising from these occurrences.”

Originally filed in March 2026, the lawsuit alleged that Harvard had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students after the October 7, 2023 terror attack against Israel by Hamas. In its lawsuit the DOJ claimed that the school violated the law through the school’s “intentionally discriminatory conduct against Jews or Israelis or Harvard’s actual knowledge of and deliberate indifference to discrimination, harassment, or hostile environment against Jews or Israelis.” The government’s case sought to recover billions of dollars in federal research grants that had been awarded to the school since October 2023.

In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged that Harvard allowed anti-Israel protests to take place, resulting in anti-Israel demonstrators restricting students’ access to classrooms and occupying Harvard’s libraries. The DOJ also claimed that Jewish students were fearful for their safety and didn’t attend classes or university activities, which resulted in them being denied access to Federally funded educational opportunities. According to the DOJ’s allegations, instructors were allowed to cancel classes or excuse students to participate in anti-Israeli demonstrations, and the university turned a blind eye to these activities even though they were in violation of university policy, which the DOJ argued the school had enforced in previous situations.

While Harvard has not released a statement on the dismissal as of this writing, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement that the DOJ disagrees with the decision and “are assessing next steps [as] the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is activity investigating antisemitism nationwide.”

The lawsuit is one of many actions the government has taken against Harvard since the university declined to comply with a list of demands related to diversity made by the White House in 2025. The Administration is investigating Harvard University’s admissions practices, has sought to cancel federal funding through a variety of different agency actions, and made an unsuccessful attempt to bar many international students from attending the school by terminating the school’s certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.