Kasowitz Defeats Harvard’s Motion To Dismiss Civil Rights Lawsuit to Stop Campus Antisemitism

Kasowitz Benson Torres, on behalf of Jewish students at Harvard University and non-profit membership organization Students Against Antisemitism, Inc., has defeated Harvard’s motion to dismiss their claims for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and breach of contract arising from the antisemitic hostile educational environment generated by Harvard’s deliberate indifference to harassment and discrimination against Jewish students by pro-Hamas demonstrators on its campus.  Plaintiffs’ claims now proceed to discovery.
 
In denying the motion, Judge Richard G. Stearns, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, ruled that the complaint documents “Harvard’s failure to address what former President Gay and Interim President Garber repeatedly publicly recognized as an eruption of antisemitism on the Harvard Campus,” including Harvard’s failure to comply with its Title VI obligations and its contractual promises to protect Jewish students against harassment and discrimination.  

The Kasowitz Benson Torres team representing the students is led by partners Marc E. Kasowitz, Daniel R. Benson, Mark P. Ressler, Andrew L. Schwartz, and Joshua E. Roberts, and includes associates Andrew C. Bernstein, Jillian R. Roffer, Emily Lowe, William Wolfe Taub, Zachary N. Josephs, Brittany F. Alzfan, Erin Ringel, Paulina Flores Elizondo, and Alfredo J. Fernández Torres.