A Boston judge threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Harvard University over its failure to address the rise of antisemitic incidents on its campus.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of the District of Massachusetts handed down the ruling on Thursday and argued that the government’s complaint failed to show an ongoing violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
From The Crimson:
A district court judge dismissed the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard on Thursday, concluding that the incidents pointed to by the government were “too isolated and episodic” to show that the University remained in violation of federal civil rights law.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns wrote that the government’s amended complaint focused almost entirely on incidents from the 2023-2024 school year and cited just three incidents from March 2025.
The government sued Harvard in March alleging that the University’s response to alleged antisemitism following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack was so inadequate that it constituted “deliberate indifference.” The lawsuit sought extraordinary relief, asking the court to cut off future funding to Harvard and retroactively claw back nearly $1 billion in federal grants issued.
“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.
The brief, four-page decision dealt a major blow to one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive legal attempts to hold Harvard accountable for its response to campus antisemitism — but stopped short of deciding whether the University had violated civil rights law during the tumultuous months immediately following Oct. 7.
Harvard cannot continue to take taxpayer funds while turning a blind eye to racial & ethnic abuse against Jewish & Israeli students.
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) March 20, 2026
Today, @CivilRights sued Harvard following an @HHSgov finding that the university violated Title VI by enabling antisemitism on its campus. pic.twitter.com/iStL0rWAtK
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon provided a statement to The Crimson in which she stated, “We disagree with the ruling and are assessing next steps.”
The DOJ had argued that even if the school was no longer violating Title VI, it could still sue for damages for the period when it was not complying with the law.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Harvard University in March 2026, claiming the school showed deliberate indifference to antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. It sought to block future federal funding to the school while recovering almost $1 billion in past grants.
Boston U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns (Clinton appointed) has tossed out the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Harvard University over antisemitism. “The lawsuit sought to cut off future funding to the university and retrieve nearly $1B in federal grants.”
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) August 13, 2026
Fox… pic.twitter.com/LRpmil8uWk
Harvard became one of several universities facing criticism over its failure to prevent anti-Jewish mobs from threatening and even physically assaulting Jewish students as they protested against Israel's war on Hamas.
Several reports chronicled instances in which members of the pro-Hamas movement assaulted, harassed, and intimidated Jewish and Israeli students while the university did little to address the problem. After being criticized and threatened with legal action, the school put policies in place aimed at protecting Jewish students and faculty members.
