Federal Judge Dismisses the Trump Administration's Lawsuit Seeking Harvard's Admissions Records
A Boston judge threw out the Justice Department's suit to force Harvard to hand over years of applicant-level admissions data for a race-in-admissions investigation. It is the latest in a run of courtroom losses for the administration's campaign against the university, after judges blocked grant terminations and an international-student ban.
HOUSTON - A federal judge in Boston on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's administration that sought to force Harvard University to turn over records for an investigation into whether it continues to consider race in student admissions, Reuters reported. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun rejected the Justice Department's case, which Harvard contends was filed as part of a broader campaign by the administration against the Ivy League school.
The administration's argument, as Reuters laid it out: the Justice Department sued in February saying Harvard was not complying with investigations into whether it is following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling rejecting race-conscious admissions programs, and that the Justice and Education departments need years of applicant-level admissions data to determine whether race remains a factor. The records were sought as part of an investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars racial discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds.
Harvard's lawyers countered that the case was retaliation - filed, they said, after the university refused demands to overhaul its governance, hiring and academic programs to align with the administration's agenda, and after Trump announced in early February that he was ending settlement talks and wanted $1 billion in damages from Harvard. They also said the Justice Department sued without first taking the legally required steps aimed at securing the university's voluntary compliance, and that the demand swept in sensitive data on thousands of high school students who had applied.
Monday's dismissal joins a pattern Harvard can now recite from memory: other judges have already rejected administration efforts to terminate more than $2 billion in its grants, to block the school from hosting international students, and to sue it for allegedly failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment. The admissions-records front, for now, is closed.
