US judge approves antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard, rejecting dismissal bid
District Judge Richard Stearns says facts as pled in lawsuit show university failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism
Harvard University failed to persuade a US judge to dismiss a lawsuit in which Jewish students accused the Ivy League school of letting its campus become a bastion of antisemitism.
Without ruling on the merits, US District Judge Richard Stearns said on Tuesday that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Harvard’s response to on-campus incidents was inadequate, and that “the facts as pled show that Harvard failed its Jewish students.”
Stearns said he was also “dubious” that Harvard could hide behind the argument that some of the challenged on-campus activity was protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
Students sued in January, accusing Harvard of selectively enforcing its anti-discrimination policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, ignoring their pleas for protection, and hiring professors who supported anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda.
Harvard and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for the students did not immediately respond to similar requests.
Stearns found sufficient allegations that Harvard acted with deliberate indifference toward its Jewish population.
“To conclude that the (complaint) has not plausibly alleged deliberate indifference would reward Harvard for virtuous public declarations that for the most part, according to the allegations of the (complaint), proved hollow when it came to taking disciplinary measures against offending students and faculty,” he wrote.
The students sought an injunction to stop Harvard’s alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin.
Stearns said the Harvard plaintiffs can also pursue two other claims: that Harvard breached a contractual obligation to enforce its non-discrimination policies, and treated students unfairly by failing to enforce those policies “evenhandedly.”
The lawsuit filed in January is one of many accusing major universities of allowing and encouraging antisemitism, including in on-campus pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests, following last October’s outbreak of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Brown University and New York University settled similar cases last month.
Columbia University, meanwhile, agreed in June to provide safety escorts and take other steps to settle a lawsuit claiming its campus had become unsafe.
The Harvard lawsuit was filed eight days after the university’s former president, Claudine Gay, resigned after coming under fire for her handling of antisemitism following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response. Gay also faced plagiarism allegations.
Massive anti-Israel protests erupted at universities across the US following the October 7 attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Demonstrators chanted pro-Palestinian slogans like “Free Palestine,” but protesters at some universities also called for an intifada — a word used to describe two periods of unrest in Israel which were characterized by constant terror attacks — or called for another “1,000 October 7ths.”
Gay’s resignation came after a congressional hearing on the handling of campus antisemitism which she faced along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT.
A Republican lawmaker at the hearing asserted that support for “intifada” equates to calling for the genocide of Jews, and then asked if calls for the genocide of Jews violated campus policies. The presidents offered lawyerly answers, declining to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech.
In June, Harvard task forces on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias each concluded that the campus was beset by discrimination and harassment, with reports of intolerance toward people with pro-Palestinian as well as pro-Israel views.
The antisemitism task force called for measures including anti-harassment training for students and for steps to ensure a “welcoming environment” for religiously observant Jewish students.
Meanwhile, the task force on anti-Muslim bias recommended measures including steps to prevent the “doxxing” of students who support the Palestinian people, and clarification of school policies toward bullying and bias.
In a message accompanying the reports, Harvard President Alan Garber urged the school community to “strengthen our ties with a sustained commitment to engaging each other with tact, decency, and compassion.”
