A federal judge in Boston has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration that sought to compel Harvard University to surrender years of admissions records. US District Judge Myong Joun rejected the government’s attempt to force the university to comply with requests for sensitive applicant data, which the administration claimed was necessary to investigate if the school is adhering to a 2023 Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions.
The Justice Department initiated the legal action in February, arguing that Harvard was failing to cooperate with ongoing probes into its enrollment practices. Federal officials contend that the Department of Justice and the Department of Education require this extensive applicant-level information to ensure the university is not continuing to use race as a factor in its selection process under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Harvard representatives maintained that the federal lawsuit was an act of retaliation, launched after the administration grew frustrated with the university’s refusal to overhaul its academic and governance structures. Legal counsel for the school pointed out that the administration filed the suit shortly after President Trump publicly declared an end to settlement negotiations and demanded $1 billion in damages, stating that the institution had “been, for a long time, behaving very badly.”
The university further argued that the Justice Department bypassed mandatory legal procedures designed to resolve record disputes through voluntary compliance. Harvard noted that the requested data included highly sensitive information concerning thousands of prospective students. This case is part of a wider trend where Harvard has served as a frequent target for federal efforts to leverage government funding and power to push back against institutions the president has characterized as being dominated by “radical left” ideologies.
Prior to this ruling, Harvard successfully defeated several other government challenges, including attempts to terminate more than $2 billion in federal grants, efforts to block the university from enrolling international students, and lawsuits alleging the school failed to adequately protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment on campus. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university has already secured rulings from other judges rejecting the administration’s efforts to terminate over $2 billion in grants, block the school from hosting international stud.
