Federal judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit against Harvard

Judge says cited campus incidents were too isolated and episodic

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Harvard University. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns said the administration had not plausibly shown an ongoing violation of federal civil rights law on Harvard’s campus.

The complaint, filed in March, claimed Harvard failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.

Stearns said the administration’s case focused largely on a handful of incidents alleged in March 2025. The judge described those incidents as “too isolated and episodic” to support a claim of ongoing civil-rights violations by Harvard.