Judge says ‘Harvard failed its Jewish students,’ allows anti-Semitism lawsuit to proceed

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled Tuesday that a lawsuit filed against Harvard accusing the university of anti-Semitism can proceed, saying “the facts alleged show that Harvard has failed its Jewish students.”

Harvard was sued in January over its campus environment and handling of protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, saying Jewish students were harassed and the school did not adequately address the issue.

Stearns said Tuesday, after hearing arguments last week, that the case could proceed, but did not rule on the merits of the allegations.

The judge said, however, that the plaintiffs “plausibly alleged” an abusive environment toward Jewish students.

“The protests were, at times, confrontational and physically violent, and the complainants legitimately fear a repeat. The harassment also impacted the plaintiffs’ lived experience at Harvard; they feared walking around campus, skipped classes and stopped participating in extracurricular events,” Stearns said.

The judge also expressed skepticism toward Harvard’s arguments that it was operating on free speech principles in its response to events.

“The court consequently has doubts that Harvard can hide behind the First Amendment to justify avoiding its Title VI obligations. In any case, whether this argument has any force is a decision best reserved for a later day,” he said.

“The record is too tenuous to determine whether Harvard actually acted to protect free speech rights, as it claims Title VI required it to do, and whether the protest activity itself falls within First Amendment protections,” he added. Stearns.

University spokesman Jason Newton said in a statement: “We are grateful that the Court rejected the claim that Harvard directly discriminated against members of our community, and we understand that the court considers it is too early to make decisions on other claims.” .

“Harvard is confident that once the facts of this case are clarified, it will be clear that Harvard acted fairly and with deep concern to support our Jewish and Israeli students,” he added.

Harvard’s problems began immediately after the October terrorist attack, after which 30 student-led groups released a statement blaming Israel for the massacre.

Earlier this year, Harvard’s former president resigned, in part because of criticism of anti-Semitism on campus.

In May, the House Education and Workforce Committee accused the Ivy League school of suppressing recommendations from its Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG).

“The AAG not only found that anti-Semitism was a major problem on campus, but also offered several recommendations on how to combat the problem – none of which were implemented with any real vigor,” said committee chair Virginia Foxx (RN. W.) .

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story