US court dismisses Trump administration lawsuit over alleged Harvard antisemitism

NEW YORK - A US federal court on Thursday threw out a Trump administration lawsuit against Harvard University which accused the prestigious institution of permitting antisemitism 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 antisemitism 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 antisemitism and harboring liberal bias.

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