![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26079546710995-e1774039308785.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed to\u00a0address antisemitism on campus, creating grounds for the government to freeze existing grants and seek repayment for grants already paid.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another salvo in a protracted battle between the administration of President Donald Trump and the elite university.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures,\u201d the Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit. It asked the court to compel Harvard to comply with federal civil rights law and to help it \u201crecover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also asks a judge to require that Harvard call police to arrest protesters blocking parts of campus and to appoint an \u201cindependent outside monitor,\u201d approved by the government, to ensure it complies with court orders.<\/p>\n
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit comes after negotiations appear to have bogged down in the months-long battle with the Trump administration that has tested the boundaries of the government\u2019s authority over America\u2019s universities. What began as an investigation into\u00a0campus antisemitism\u00a0escalated into an all-out feud as the Trump administration slashed more than $2.6 billion in research funding, ended federal contracts and attempted to block Harvard from\u00a0hosting international students.<\/p>\n
In a pair of lawsuits filed by the university, Harvard has said it\u2019s being unfairly penalized for refusing to adopt the administration\u2019s views. A federal judge agreed in December,\u00a0reversing the funding cuts\u00a0and calling the antisemitism argument a \u201csmokescreen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a major association of colleges and universities, accused the administration of launching a \u201cfull scale, multi-pronged\u201d attack on Harvard. Friday\u2019s lawsuit, he said, is just the latest attempt to pressure Harvard to agree to changes favored by the administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen bullies pound on the table and don\u2019t get they want, they pound again,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration began investigating allegations of discrimination against Harvard\u2019s Jewish and Israeli students less than two weeks after the president took office. The allegations focus on Harvard\u2019s actions during and after pro-Palestinian demonstrations during the\u00a0Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n
Officials concluded Harvard did not adequately address concerns raised about antisemitism that drove some students to conceal their religious skullcaps and avoid classes. During protests of the war, Trump officials said, Harvard permitted students to demonstrate against Israel\u2019s actions in the school library and allowed a pro-Palestinian encampment to remain on campus for 20 days, \u201cin violation of university policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its lawsuit Friday, the Justice Department also accused Harvard of failing to discipline staff or students who protested or tacitly endorsed the demonstrations, such as by canceling or dismissing classes that conflicted with protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarvard University has failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment and has allowed discrimination to wreak havoc on its campus,\u201d White House press secretary Liz Huston said Friday on X. \u201cPresident Trump is committed to ensuring every student can pursue their academic goals in a safe environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite their bitter dispute, Harvard and the Trump administration have held some negotiations, and the two sides have reportedly been close to reaching an agreement on multiple occasions. Last year, the administration and the university were reportedly approaching a deal that would have required Harvard to pay $500 million to regain access to federal funding and to end the investigations. Almost a year later, Trump upped that figure to $1 billion, saying that Harvard has been \u201cbehaving very badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the administration was taking steps in a civil rights investigation that had the potential to jeopardize all of Harvard\u2019s federal funding.<\/p>\n
In June, the Trump administration made a formal finding that Harvard tolerated antisemitism.<\/p>\n
In a letter sent to Harvard, a federal task force said its investigation had found the university was a \u201cwillful participant\u201d in antisemitic harassment of Jewish students and faculty. The task force threatened to refer the case to the Justice Department to file a civil rights lawsuit \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d unless Harvard came into compliance.<\/p>\n
When colleges are found in violation of federal civil rights law, they almost always reach compliance through voluntary agreements. When the government determines a resolution can\u2019t be negotiated, it can try to sever federal funding through an administrative process or, as the Trump administration has done, by referring the case to the Justice Department through litigation.<\/p>\n
Such an impasse has been extraordinarily rare in recent decades.<\/p>\n
Last summer, Harvard responded that it strongly disagreed with the government\u2019s investigative finding and was committed to fighting bias.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntisemitism is a serious problem and no matter the context, it is unacceptable,\u201d the university said in a statement. \u201cHarvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism in its community.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a letter last spring, Harvard President Alan M. Garber told government officials that the school had formed a task force to combat antisemitism, which released a detailed report of what unfolded on campus after Hamas militants stormed Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel retaliated with an offensive that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced around 90% of Gaza\u2019s population \u2014 prompting pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges around the country.<\/p>\n
After the demonstrations at Harvard, Garber said the university had hired a new provost and new deans and that it had reformed its discipline policies to make them \u201cmore consistent, fair and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since he took office, Trump has targeted elite universities he believes are overrun by left-wing ideology and antisemitism. His administration has frozen billions of dollars in research grants, which colleges have come to rely on for scientific and medical research.<\/p>\n
Several universities have reached agreements with the White House to restore funding. Some deals have included direct payments to the government, including $200 million from Columbia University. Brown University agreed to pay $50 million toward state workforce development groups.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Education Writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
The Associated Press\u2019 education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s\u00a0standards\u00a0for working with philanthropies, a\u00a0list\u00a0of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.<\/p>\n
#Trumps #DOJ #sues #Harvard #claiming #failure #tackle #antisemitism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[4120,793,1371,518,4640,1662,929,4119,4641,1983,4093],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}