Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard is dismissed

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/08/13/trump-administrations-antisemitism-lawsuit-against-harvard-is-dismissed/

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns said the incidents were “too isolated and episodic” to support the claim that Harvard is not complying with federal law.

U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns found that the complaint largely detailed incidents in the 2023-2024 school year, when there was a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard. It also listed three incidents in March 2025: one in which a Harvard employee allegedly tore down posters of Israeli hostages, and two cases in which the government said Harvard failed to take action against anti-Israel protesters who violated university rules, including breaching barricades outside an event featuring a former Israeli official and a “die in” on the steps of the main campus library.

Stearns, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the incidents were “too isolated and episodic” to demonstrate that Harvard is not complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by schools that receive federal money.

The judge wrote that the government’s complaint is “devoid of any factual allegations” that the university has failed to comply with the law since the administration formally notified Harvard that it needed to comply with the law in June 2025. He said the law was intended to bring entities into compliance with the law, not to punish them for past violations.