A federal judge in Boston has dismissed the Justice Department’s case against Harvard University, which accused the school of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment. The judge determined that the incidents of antisemitism were too isolated to establish a pattern of noncompliance with federal civil rights law.

Background

The Justice Department filed its lawsuit against Harvard in March 2026, following a wave of anti-Israel protests on college campuses nationwide. The protests at Harvard included occupations of libraries and other campus buildings, as well as a weekslong encampment in Harvard Yard. Jewish students reported being harassed, intimidated, and excluded from campus spaces.

The Justice Department alleged that Harvard violated Title VI by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment, despite complaints to university leaders about the conduct. However, the judge found that the Justice Department had referred to only three antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus during the following school year that the school had allegedly failed to address.

These incidents included protesters allegedly breaching barricades outside an event featuring former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a Harvard employee allegedly removing posters of Israeli hostages, and more than 60 masked protesters staging a ‘die-in’ outside Widener Library, where they chanted, ‘We will honor all our martyrs.’ The judge did not rule on whether Harvard had violated Title VI during the height of the campus unrest, but rather focused on whether the Justice Department had sufficiently alleged that violations continued after the government formally put Harvard on notice.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.