A federal judge has dismissed the Justice Department’s discrimination case against Harvard University that alleged the institution failed to protect students from harassment on campus.
The Justice Department sued Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard in March, seeking to force repayment of federal grants and cut off future funding over allegations the university failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students during campus protests. The lawsuit followed a monthslong struggle between the university and federal government, which had launched antisemitism investigations at prominent U.S. medical schools in early 2025 and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants and contracts over multiple rounds. A judge in September ordered the government to restore nearly $2.2 billion of those grants, finding little connection between the affected research and the administration’s antisemitism concerns.
In dismissing the lawsuit, Judge Richard Stearns of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled the government failed to plausibly allege that any discriminatory noncompliance persists at Harvard. He found the government’s amended complaint focused almost entirely on incidents from the 2023-2024 school year, with only three allegations tied to events after that period, all occurring in March 2025, nearly a full year before the government determined voluntary compliance could not be secured and more than a year before the lawsuit was filed, according to Aug. 13 court documents.
“We disagree with the ruling and are assessing next steps,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement to Becker’s. “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is actively investigating antisemitism nationwide. The Civil Rights Division has an extensive and active portfolio of antisemitism enforcement, including indictments, prosecutions, settlements, and investigations across the country.”
Becker’s has reached out to Harvard for comment and will update this story if a response is received.
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