DOJ Files Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Harvard over Treatment of Jewish Students

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a federal civil rights lawsuit against Harvard University on March 20, 2026, alleging the school failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment and discrimination following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.

Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon began: “I’m here to tell you about an important federal civil rights lawsuit that the United States Department of Justice filed today against Harvard University for tolerating significant and onerous racial and ethnic abuse against Israeli and Jewish students on the campus in the wake of the horrific Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.”

She added, “Harvard allowed pro-Palestinian protests to take over the campus, but importantly, that included these people blocking visibly Jewish and Israeli students from being able to get to their classes. Now, Harvard has rules about how students should conduct themselves, but it relaxed those rules when it came to these particular protesters. ”

“Every American university that takes federal funding must comply with federal law, including, in this case, title six,” she said. “The United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division will not allow any particular category of students in our country to be discriminated against, taunted or otherwise harassed in this horrific fashion that Harvard tolerated. The record is clear.”

She concluded, “We look forward to litigating this case, and we look forward to making sure that every recipient of federal funding in the university systems complies with our federal civil rights laws. So stay tuned for more developments in this case.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has led congressional oversight efforts into campus antisemitism and is set to release a book on what she describes as the “academic and moral rot” of elite universities, voiced support for the lawsuit, stating, “This is the absolute correct decision by the Trump Administration to sue Harvard for failing to protect Jewish students. This is after years of Congressional oversight work that I was proud to lead in holding Harvard accountable.”

Dhillon has previously argued that the issue extends beyond Harvard, stating in 2025 that “almost no university in the United States has been compliant with federal law when it comes to anti-discrimination in admissions, and particularly the most elite ones,” adding that “they have quotas. They have discrimination.” She also linked rising antisemitism on campuses to foreign funding and what she described as “callousness or even reckless disregard” by universities.