A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit against Harvard University that accused the school of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students, finding the instances of alleged discrimination cited by the government were “too isolated and episodic” to support federal civil rights violations.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Massachusetts issued a four-page order granting Harvard’s motion to dismiss the suit.
“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.
Stearns wrote that the government’s complaint was “devoid of any factual allegations” that occurred after the Trump administration notified Harvard that it believed it had failed to comply with federal civil rights law, as is required before any legal action can be taken, and the other three instances in the complaint occurred between 2023 and 2024.
In March, the Justice Department filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the university, alleging that it violated the law by failing to protect the students after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas, claiming Harvard’s “intentional conduct and its deliberate indifference to discriminatory harassment of Jewish and Israeli students and creation of a hostile educational environment.” The administration sought to recover billions of dollars in taxpayer money that Harvard has received from federal agencies.
In its lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged that Harvard defied federal law by discriminating against the students “without remorse” and the students were subjected to “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive harassment” on campus, including during protests against Israel, because of their race or national origin. The government alleged that Harvard knew about the harassment against the Jewish and Israeli students but did not stop it.
The lawsuit was one of many steps against the university that the Trump administration has taken since President Trump’s return to office, in addition to attempting to cancel billions of dollars in federal funding.
The Justice Department responded in a statement saying it “disagreed with the ruling and are assessing the next steps.” The statement also pointed to an ongoing antisemitism investigation by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Harvard and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Melissa Quinn contributed reporting.