US court dismisses Trump administration lawsuit over alleged Harvard anti-Semitism

NEW YORK - A US federal court on Aug 13 threw out a Trump administration lawsuit against Harvard University which accused the prestigious institution of permitting anti-Semitism during pro-Palestinian rallies on campus.

District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston ruled that the government had not sufficiently proven that Harvard breached a Civil Rights Act provision that bars discrimination along race, nationality and other lines.

President Donald Trump has launched a campaign against major American universities, accusing them of giving free rein on their campuses to pro-Palestinian movements in the face of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

In its complaint filed in March, the Department of Justice said Harvard “faculty and leadership turned a blind eye to anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.”

“Harvard let anti-Israeli demonstrators occupy its libraries. Harvard allowed an anti-Israeli encampment to persist for twenty days in violation of university policy,” it said.

But Judge Stearns, who granted a Harvard request to dismiss the lawsuit, said the incidents raised by the Trump administration were “too isolated and episodic” to prove noncompliance with the Civil Rights Act.

The decision marks a blow to Trump’s attacks against the oldest university in the United States.

His administration has separately moved to freeze billions of dollars of funding for Harvard for allegedly tolerating anti-Semitism and harboring liberal bias.

In September 2025, a federal judge ruled that move largely unlawful and ordered the funds be restored. AFP