The U.S. Justice Department sued Harvard University on Friday, accusing the school of not doing enough to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment, in the latest effort by the Trump administration to challenge the Ivy League institution.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, said students were blocked from school buildings in 2023 and 2024 by protesters and forced to wear baseball caps to hide their yarmulkes, a traditional head covering worn by many observant Jewish men.
“Harvard’s response to this: do nothing,” the suit said. “Its faculty and leadership turned a blind eye to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.”
The lawsuit said Harvard, in not doing more to stop the harassment, violated civil rights laws as well as its own rules and discriminated against Jews and Israelis. And the suit asks the court to order Harvard to take steps to protect students, including putting restrictions on protests, and to give the federal government permission to halt further grant payments to the university.
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Friday’s filing was the second time the Trump administration sued Harvard this year. In February, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the school saying it refused to provide admissions records. The government said it wants the records to make sure Harvard is complying with a Supreme Court ruling that limits affirmative action.
Harvard sued the administration last year after the government froze billions of its federal funding. A federal court judge in Boston ruled in Harvard’s favor, saying that the administration used antisemitism as a smoke screen to withhold federal money. The judge barred the administration from using similar reasoning to block grants to Harvard in the future.
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