Judge Dismisses Trump Administration Lawsuit Against Harvard University

US District Judge Richard Stearns dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Donald Trump administration on Thursday, ruling that the government failed to plausibly demonstrate an ongoing violation of federal civil rights law at Harvard University.

The lawsuit, originally filed in March, alleged that the university failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment following the war in Gaza. In his ruling issued in Boston, Stearns found that the government's claims relied on incidents from the 2023/24 school year and a small number of events in March 2025. He characterized these occurrences as "too isolated and episodic" to support the legal claim.

Stearns further noted that the administration did not adequately allege specific university failures following a June 2025 notification stating that Harvard was not complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.