The Trump administration continues to accuse Harvard University of discrimination in two new investigations launched this week by the Department of Education and a billion-dollar lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.
The agency’s Office for Civil Rights announced Monday it is investigating allegations that the university has tolerated the ongoing harassment of Jewish students. A second probe will determine if Harvard “continues to use illegal race-based preferences in admissions” despite the 2023 Supreme Court ruling—Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard—that outlawed affirmative action.
“No one—not even Harvard—is above the law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “If Harvard continues to stonewall as we try to verify its basic compliance with antidiscrimination statutes, we will vigorously hold them to account to ensure students’ rights are protected.”
A Harvard spokesperson told Reuters on Monday that the university is “firmly committed to confronting antisemitism” and has worked to prevent harassment and discrimination.
Last year, the university investigated itself, releasing a pair of reports that found evidence of antisemitism and of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias on its campus. Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students and staff reported feeling unwelcome and hiding “overt markers of their identities to avoid confrontation,” Garber noted in a letter to campus in April 2025.
Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian community members said they felt “judged, misrepresented, and silenced,” Garber also said. Members of both groups found the university’s responses to complaints inadequate.
“Some students reported being pushed by their peers to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe, eroding our shared sense of community in the process,” Garber wrote. “Harvard cannot—and will not—abide bigotry.”
The Office for Civil Rights also threatened to punish Harvard over its refusal to release details that the agency has requested about the university’s admissions process. The agency warned it may refer the university to the U.S. Department of Justice if the information is not provided within the next 20 days.
On Friday, the Department of Justice sued Harvard over the reported antisemitism. The agency is seeking to recover $2.6 billion in grants that the university is set to receive from the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies.
In response to the lawsuit, the university said in a statement that it is combatting antisemitism by enforcing its own anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules, promoting civil dialogue and expanding training. The suit “represents yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government,” the university said.
“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,” Harvard added. “Our actions illustrate this.”
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