Holding Harvard accountable

Bill Barr writes:

Last week, a federal judge in Massachusetts sent an unmistakable message to campus administrators in the United States: when it comes to combating antisemitism, talk is cheap. Judge Richard Stearns greenlighted a student organization’s case against Harvard that alleges the university failed to protect the civil rights of Jewish students even as they were harassed, intimidated, and violently attacked by their peers. “The facts as pled show that Harvard failed its Jewish students,” Stearns wrote in his 25-page decision.

Harvard urged the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that campus administrators had done enough to combat antisemitism by issuing condemnations of it, holding listening sessions about it, pulling together a task force on it, and pledging to take action against it. But Judge Stearns refused. He rightly observed that federal civil rights law demands more than denunciations—it requires meaningful action. Dismissal of the case, he reasoned, “would reward Harvard for virtuous public declarations that for the most part, according to the [Plaintiffs], proved hollow.”

Wow, a Judge that said you need to do more than just issue a press release. Excellent.