A Massachusetts Superior Court judge granted Harvard’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed former Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Edelman’s lawsuit alleging improper denial of tenure. Justice Kenneth W. Salinger concluded Harvard did not breach any contractual obligation when it denied Edelman tenure in 2018, underscoring judicial deference in academic promotion disputes. The court record recaps HBS’s Faculty Review Board findings: concerns over Edelman’s conduct, prior public controversies and questions about disclosure related to outside payments. Harvard extended Edelman’s appointment twice while monitoring his conduct before ultimately denying tenure. The ruling closes a three-year legal challenge that tested how far faculty protections extend when schools invoke institutional “community values.” For higher education leaders and faculty governance offices, the decision reaffirms universities’ broad latitude in tenure decisions and signals that courts are unlikely to substitute judicial judgment for internal academic assessments. The case may shape how institutions document procedural compliance and communicate decisions tied to conduct and outside funding.