Harvard, NYU, and several other elite universities have been hit with civil rights lawsuits from students who say the schools allow, or at least don't counter, a culture on campus of pervasive antisemitism.
Though these suits largely stem from an increase in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7 and the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, attorneys say the groundwork for them was laid with an executive order back in 2019. That's when the Trump administration adopted a newer, more broad definition of antisemitism for civil rights claims under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
On today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg News reporter David Voreacos talks about this litigation and why the 2019 policy change could pose problems for the universities facing the lawsuits. We also hear from two attorneys representing Jewish students in these suits and they explain why they believe universities should be held accountable for the actions of their students and faculty.
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