President Donald Trump's antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard was dismissed Thursday by a federal judge who called the government's arguments "fevered."
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, who has presided over Harvard antisemitism cases for three years, ruled the government's complaint relied almost entirely on incidents from the 2023-2024 school year.
Because the Justice Department provided its required legal notice to Harvard on June 30, 2025, the court found no allegations of noncompliance after that date — and dismissed the case.
"Without diminishing any concern arising from these occurrences, the court finds them, singly and collectively, to be too isolated and episodic to support a plausible inference that any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day," Stearns wrote.
The Justice Department had sought to recover nearly $1 billion in federal grants already paid to Harvard and to install a government-approved independent monitor over the university, according to the ruling.
Stearns also rejected the government's argument that its reading of the law would make it "virtually impossible" for the United States to win a civil rights suit — because a school that fixes its behavior to keep its funding is exactly what the law intends.
"Even in the Government's fevered forewarning of potential havoc, it concedes that its own hypothetical result is a positive, if roughly achieved, outcome," Stearns wrote. "The government misconstrues, inadvertently or not, the purpose of an enforcement action."
"Congress's intent was not to penalize a wayward funding recipient but instead to incentivize it to bring itself into compliance with Title VI," the judge said, adding in a footnote that "the Government does not identify any rational basis for its determination."
Failing to follow the government's specific commands "is not a rational basis" for finding a civil rights violation, he continued — noting the law focuses on compliance with Title VI, not with whatever the government demands.
The ruling is the latest legal defeat for the Trump administration in its nearly year-long campaign to force Harvard into compliance with a series of sweeping demands, the Harvard Crimson reported Thursday.
"Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds," Trump wrote on Truth Social in April 2025, after Harvard became the first university to openly reject his demands.
"We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University," Trump wrote on Truth Social in February, months before Stearns dismissed the suit.
The Justice Department has a separate appeal pending at the First Circuit Court of Appeals over more than $2 billion in research grants a federal judge ruled it unlawfully froze, Reuters reported.
