Judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit alleging Harvard failed to protect Jewish students

A federal judge dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit alleging Harvard University failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment. Judge Richard Stearns ruled the March lawsuit did not plausibly show an ongoing violation of federal civil rights law, citing incidents during the 2023/24 school year as too isolated.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Thursday by the Trump administration that alleged Harvard University failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment. US District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston ruled that the lawsuit, filed in March, had not plausibly shown an ongoing violation of federal civil rights law on Harvard's campus. Stearns said the government's allegations focused largely on incidents amid protests over Israel's war in Gaza during the 2023/24 school year, with only a handful of later incidents alleged in March 2025 that were "too isolated and episodic" to support a claim of ongoing civil rights violations. The judge said the lawsuit did not adequately allege failures by the university after the government told Harvard in June 2025 that it was not complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in programs that receive federal funding. The White House and Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.