A U.S. District Court judge in Boston on Thursday dismissed the federal government's antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University, finding the college isn't presently violating civil-rights law.
The suit was part of a Trump administration push to reshape the Ivy League school, alleging institutional antisemitism, racism in admissions and failure to allow free and open debate on campus.
Harvard has said that it has taken steps to address antisemitism on campus and that the government attacks are a violation of the school's First Amendment rights and academic independence.
In this suit, Judge Richard G. Stearns ruled on Thursday that there wasn't sufficient evidence of ongoing institutionalized racial discrimination at Harvard.
The government's complaint focused largely on alleged antisemitism at Harvard in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. Stearns questioned whether antisemitism remained widespread when the government filed its lawsuit this year.
"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, referencing 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.
Neither the White House nor Harvard immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has shaken prominent universities nationwide by targeting billions of dollars in federal funding. A number of them, including Brown and Columbia, have struck deals with the federal government, but Harvard has dug in while alumni support has grown and Harvard President Alan Garber's stature has risen.
During his third campaign for president, President Trump promised to rein in what he called the liberal excesses of higher education. The administration began zeroing in on Harvard early in 2025 when it froze $2.2 billion in federal research grants over allegations the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.
The administration went on to threaten Harvard's tax-exempt status, target its ability to enroll international students and probe its acceptance of foreign donations.
Harvard won a significant court battle in September after it sued the administration. A federal judge ruled the Trump administration's funding cuts were unconstitutional and ordered the money restored. In December, the administration filed an appeal, which is ongoing. Harvard has said it remains confident in its legal position.
Thursday's ruling stems from a separate civil-rights lawsuit the Trump administration filed against Harvard in March, alleging the school failed to enforce antiharassment rules when it came to Jewish and Israeli students. The suit sought to recover millions of taxpayer dollars that Harvard accepted while allegedly in violation of civil-rights law.
The government argued Harvard was "deliberately indifferent" to the students, who the suit said endured years of harassment including physical assault. Jewish students, the government said, wore baseball caps to conceal their yarmulkes or kept out of sight -- "effectively denying them access to federally funded educational opportunities."
Harvard has acknowledged campus tumult. The university in 2025 released a faculty report on antisemitism that found the school came up short in protecting Jewish students and providing an evenhanded approach to the volatile situation after the October 2023 attacks by Hamas.
In a message accompanying the report, Garber called the 2023-24 academic year "disappointing and painful" and apologized for the "moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community."