Judge Tosses Trump Administration’s Lawsuit Over Harvard Admissions Records
A federal judge on Monday dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking Harvard University’s admissions records, ruling the government skipped required steps before taking the school to court.
U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun of Massachusetts, a Biden appointee, found the Justice and Education departments could not show they followed procedures meant to win voluntary compliance first, Politico reported.
“A deadline and a threat to sue, standing alone, do not necessarily demonstrate compliance” with those procedures, Joun wrote. The Education Department had joined the case with a similar probe of its own.
The complaint also failed to allege that the Justice Department “informed Harvard of the action it would take — namely, litigation — should Harvard fail to comply,” Joun wrote, according to CNBC.
The ruling was narrow. Joun stressed that he was not deciding whether Harvard discriminates or whether it may eventually have to hand over the data, and said the department could sue again after taking more administrative steps.
The Washington Post also reported the dismissal, the latest legal win for the Ivy League school in its long fight with the White House.
Fight Traces to 2023 Ruling
The Justice Department sued in February, saying Harvard was stonewalling investigations into whether it is following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down race-conscious admissions in a case involving the school.
At stake is applicant-level data on thousands of high school students who sought admission to Harvard, records the government says it needs to check the school’s compliance.
The administration said it needed years of applicant-level data to determine whether race still factors into admissions and whether Harvard is complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Harvard’s lawyers argued the suit was retaliation for the university’s refusal to overhaul its governance, hiring and academic programs to fit the administration’s agenda.
They pointed to the timing. The case was filed after Trump announced in early February that he was ending settlement talks with the school.
Trump said then that he wanted $1 billion in damages from Harvard, which he said had “been, for a long time, behaving very badly.”
Harvard released figures last week showing Black undergraduate enrollment fell for a third straight year since the 2023 ruling, to 9.3% of the class of 2030 from 11.5% of the class of 2029.
The school has also won rulings from other judges blocking administration efforts to cut more than $2 billion in grants and to bar it from hosting international students.
Harvard has been a top target of the administration’s push to use federal funding and government power to force changes at universities that Trump says are dominated by “radical left” ideologies.
Neither the Justice Department nor Harvard immediately responded to requests for comment on Monday’s ruling, CNBC reported.
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