A federal judge dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit accusing Harvard University of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from campus harassment—ruling that documented incidents were "too isolated and episodic" to prove ongoing civil rights violations, even as the same university enforces speech codes against disfavored groups with zero tolerance.
US District Judge Richard Stearns, a Clinton appointee sitting in Boston, tossed the Justice Department's case on Thursday, saying the administration failed to plausibly show Harvard is currently violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination in federally funded programs. The ruling means one of the nation's wealthiest universities—collecting billions in federal subsidies—faces no court accountability for how it handled antisemitic harassment after the October 7 Hamas attacks.
The administration's original complaint painted a damning picture: DOJ lawyers said Jewish and Israeli students were "harassed, physically assaulted, stalked, and spat upon" while Harvard's administration "turned a blind eye" and "did nothing," according to The Guardian's reporting. The lawsuit sought to "recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution," NBC News reported.
Stearns wasn't having it. In a brief four-page ruling, he said he wasn't "diminishing any concern" from campus events after the Hamas attacks—but that the government's complaint misconstrued what Title VI was designed to do. Congress intended the law to incentivize compliance going forward, not punish past failures, he ruled. The incidents cited were "almost entirely restricted" to the 2023-24 school year. Only three incidents were alleged after that period, all in March 2025—more than a full academic year before the lawsuit was filed, the New York Post reported.
The judge also found the government's amended complaint was "devoid of any factual allegations" showing Harvard remained out of compliance after the administration put the university on formal notice under Title VI in June 2025. He dismissed what he called "the government's fevered forewarning of potential havoc."
Harvard denied the claims. The university called the lawsuit "yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government," according to NBC News. In a court filing, Harvard insisted it "condemns antisemitism and is committed to ensuring that Jewish and Israeli students...can learn and participate fully in campus life free from harassment or exclusion."
The dismissal is the latest in a string of rulings shielding Harvard from administration pressure. A federal judge previously blocked efforts to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll international students, and another found the administration unlawfully terminated more than $2 billion in research grants.
The question that lingers: when elite universities police the speech of students who step outside progressive orthodoxy—triggering investigations, suspensions, and diversity office interventions over microaggressions—why does the bar for "ongoing violation" become unreachable the moment Jewish students report being spat on and stalked?
