{"id":93627,"date":"2026-08-14T06:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=93627"},"modified":"2026-08-14T06:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:03:29","slug":"judge-throws-out-trumps-harvard-antisemitism-lawsuit-citing-lack-of-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/judge-throws-out-trumps-harvard-antisemitism-lawsuit-citing-lack-of-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge throws out Trump\u2019s Harvard antisemitism lawsuit, citing lack of evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ANDREW LAPIN<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 A federal judge threw out the Trump administration\u2019s lawsuit that had accused Harvard University of having \u201cturned a blind eye\u201d to Jewish and Israeli students, ending for now the most high-profile campus antisemitism case in the legal arena.<\/p>\n

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Israeli flags were planted on the lawn of the Harvard Divinity School as campus protests continue on October 25, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Lane Turner\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The judge, Richard Stearns, ruled Thursday that the government\u2019s evidence for Harvard having committed Title VI civil rights violations were \u201ctoo isolated and episodic to support a plausible inference that any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the government disagrees with the ruling and is \u201cassessing next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s suit against the Ivy League school, first filed in March, was a cornerstone of his administration\u2019s aggressive and contentious fight against campus antisemitism. Harvard was among the most prominent schools to have experienced severe tensions, including incidents directly targeting Jewish students and \u201cZionists,\u201d in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel. The school settled cases with some Jewish students and put forward its own plans to fight antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Yet unlike some other schools, Harvard resisted the government\u2019s efforts to make concessions and pay a fine in order to resolve Title VI cases. The school also fought the Trump administration\u2019s 2025 freezing of more than $2 billion in federal funds to Harvard, which the government argued was punishment for failing to address campus antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Sterns wrote that the government\u2019s case in the Title VI suit was flawed because it relied on incidents almost entirely from the 2023-24 school year and couldn\u2019t be considered \u201congoing.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also criticized the Trump administration\u2019s practice of withholding funds from schools accused of Title VI violations, writing, \u201cCongress\u2019s intent was not to penalize a wayward funding recipient but instead to incentivize it to bring itself into compliance with TItle VI.\u201d Title VI is the section of the Civil Rights Act requiring institutions that receive federal funds not to discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Harvard did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard alum who has become a prominent conservative campus activist on antisemitism issues since Oct. 7, criticized the ruling to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/p>\n

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A sign at Harvard Hillel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, on December 12, 2023. (Joseph Prezioso \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHarvard insists on violating the civil rights of American Jewish students while holding the American people hostage in paying for it,\u201d he wrote in a message. Kestenbaum encouraged the government not to issue any further grants to the university.<\/p>\n

The case has been seen as a barometer of academia\u2019s ability to fight the Trump administration in court over federal incursion efforts, many of which the administration cited campus antisemitism to justify. The day before the suit\u2019s dismissal, three dozen universities \u2014 including fellow Ivy League schools Brown, Columbia and Cornell, all of whom had signed agreements with the Trump administration in exchange for dropping antisemitism charges \u2014 filed an amicus brief supporting Harvard in a separate case that had restored the school\u2019s federal funding by court order.<\/p>\n

The legal brouhaha had divided Jewish groups. Weeks before the judge\u2019s ruling, Hillel International filed, then immediately withdrew, its own amicus brief supporting Harvard in the separate case. Hillel\u2019s brief had argued the school was already adequately addressing antisemitism and that the government\u2019s actions \u201cdo not help Jewish students.\u201d Hillel withdrew the brief hours later, after activists including Kestenbaum criticized the organization on social media and urged donors to withhold funding.<\/p>\n

Hillel International declined to comment on the latest development to JTA. A request for comment to Harvard Hillel, which operates independently of the parent organization, was not immediately returned. A request for comment to Harvard Chabad, whose director has also been outspoken about fighting campus antisemitism, was also not immediately returned. <\/p>\n

Harvard\u2019s Jewish community has also split over the school\u2019s handling of antisemitism and the merits of the lawsuit. A March open letter signed by 120 Jewish Harvard faculty and staff after the lawsuit\u2019s initial filing said the government \u201ccynically exploits concerns about antisemitism to justify what can only be described as an authoritarian assault on institutions of higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, a July open letter signed by 170 Jewish and non-Jewish Harvard faculty and staff said that \u201cchallenges remain\u201d on campus, while acknowledging \u201cthe situation has improved to some extent recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand why colleagues question the merits and motives of the Title VI lawsuit,\u201d the second letter states. \u201cBut one should not turn a blind eye to the fact that many Jewish and Israeli students have suffered harassment and discrimination over the last few years, degrading their Harvard experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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