Trump administration sues Harvard again for discrimination

The Republican government claims that following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, these students were harassed and physically attacked, while facing a “hostile educational environment” for years, to which Harvard remained “indifferent.”

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, the government refers to pro-Palestinian protests that took place on campus, particularly in 2023 and 2024.

“Harvard allowed anti-Israel protesters to occupy its libraries and an anti-Israel camp to remain for 20 days (on campus), in violation of University policy,” the lawsuit says.

Furthermore, the American government argued that the renowned institution “failed to enforce its rules or significantly sanction” the students who occupied its buildings during these demonstrations.

“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and is taking this action to force Harvard to comply with Title VI – referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – and recover billions of taxpayer dollars in scholarships awarded to a discriminatory institution”, emphasizes the government.

The Trump administration is asking the court to order the refund of all scholarship payments made to Harvard during the period in which it allegedly violated the law.

This is a new step in the legal dispute between the university, one of the prestigious Ivy League institutions in the USA, and the Trump administration.

Remember the legal battle

In February 2025, the government sent Harvard a formal letter demanding oversight of its admissions processes, staffing practices, and student admissions.

After Harvard’s refusal, the government froze more than $2 billion in federal funds to the institution on the grounds that it adopted anti-Semitic policies. However, the university sued Trump, and a federal judge lifted the freeze on the funds.

In February, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed another lawsuit against the institution, accusing it of withholding information from the government during an investigation into its admissions process to determine “whether it continues to discriminate” against students.

Harvard is not the only university to face government lawsuits: Last month, the Department of Justice sued the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for allegedly permitting “grossly anti-Semitic acts” and “systematically ignoring pleas for help from its own Jewish and Israeli employees.”