Chicago – August 15, 2026
A federal judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration accusing Harvard University of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from antisemitic harassment.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled that the incidents cited by the Justice Department were “too isolated and episodic” to establish that Harvard was still violating federal civil rights law. The lawsuit, filed in March, focused largely on incidents following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent campus protests over the war in Gaza.
The administration had argued that Harvard’s response amounted to a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs. It sought to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
Stearns said the government’s complaint failed to provide sufficient evidence of an ongoing violation after officials formally notified Harvard of the alleged problems in June 2025. He emphasized that Title VI enforcement is intended to encourage institutions to comply with the law, rather than simply punish past conduct.
The Justice Department said it disagreed with the ruling and was considering its next steps. The decision represents another setback for the Trump administration’s broader campaign against Harvard.
