President Donald Trump’s administration sued Harvard University on Friday over the Ivy League school’s alleged failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students, and is seeking to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, the Department of Justice said Harvard remains deliberately indifferent to hostility on its campus and has intentionally refused to enforce its campus rules when victims are Jews or Israelis.
“This sent the clear message to Harvard’s Jewish and Israeli community that the indifference was not an accident; they were being intentionally excluded and effectively denied equal access to educational opportunities,” the complaint said.
Harvard will defend against the lawsuit, which a spokesperson called “yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government.”
The school also defended its efforts to address antisemitism on campus, which have included expanding training, improving disciplinary processes, and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
“Harvard cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus,” the spokesperson said. “Harvard’s efforts demonstrate the very opposite of deliberate indifference.”
The Justice Department said in a press release announcing the lawsuit that the university “ignored what its own Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias deemed the ‘exclusion of Israeli or Zionist students from social spaces and extracurricular activities.’”
Friday’s lawsuit came less than two months after Trump said his administration was seeking $1 billion from Harvard to settle probes into school policies, after a published report said Trump had dropped his demand for a $200 million payment.
It also follows a Feb. 13 lawsuit where the government accused Harvard of failing to comply with a federal investigation, and sought documents to determine whether the university illegally considered race in its admissions process.
“Since October 7th, 2023, too many of our educational institutions have allowed anti-Semitism to flourish on campus – Harvard included,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Friday.
“Today’s litigation underscores the Trump Administration’s commitment to demanding better from our nation’s schools and putting an end to discriminatory behavior that harms students,” Bondi stated.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate the harassment, assault, or intimidation of Jewish and Israeli students, and neither should Harvard,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
This report was updated with statements from Harvard University and the Justice Department.
