Federal judge dismisses Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking Harvard admissions records
US District Judge Myong Joun dismissed the Justice Department’s case on procedural grounds, ruling it had not shown it took the required steps to seek Harvard’s voluntary compliance before suing.
A federal judge in Boston has dismissed a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump’s administration that sought to force Harvard University to hand over years of applicant-level admissions records, in the latest court setback for the White House in its long-running dispute with the Ivy League school.
US District Judge Myong Joun dismissed the case on Monday, 2 November, rejecting the US Department of Justice’s attempt to compel Harvard to produce the data as part of an investigation into whether the university continues to consider race in its admissions decisions.
The ruling turned on procedure rather than on the substance of the dispute. Joun found that the Justice Department had not shown that it took the legally required steps to secure Harvard’s voluntary compliance before going to court, a prerequisite for the kind of enforcement action it was seeking.
“For example, the complaint does not allege that DOJ informed Harvard of the action it would take — namely, litigation — should Harvard fail to comply, nor does the complaint allege the specific failure identified,” Joun wrote, according to Reuters.
The judge was careful to limit the scope of his decision. He said the dismissal did not resolve whether Harvard had discriminated, whether the agencies could lawfully seek appropriately defined applicant-level data, or whether Harvard might ultimately be required to provide such data.
The Justice Department filed the case in February, arguing that Harvard had thwarted and slow-walked a federal civil rights review by missing deadlines for records requests. Officials said they needed years of admissions data — including applicants’ grades, test scores, essays, extracurricular activities, admissions outcomes and race or ethnicity — to judge whether race remained a factor in decisions.
The investigation is tied to the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling rejecting race-conscious admissions programmes used to boost minority enrolment. The Justice Department said it needed the records to determine whether Harvard was complying with that ruling and with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars racial discrimination in education programmes receiving federal funds.
Harvard, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, argued that the department sued without first taking the required steps to obtain voluntary compliance, and that the records sought included sensitive information about thousands of high-school students who had applied to the university. The university has contended that the lawsuit formed part of a broader campaign by the administration against it.
The dismissal comes less than a week after Harvard released demographic data for its Class of 2030 showing that the share of enrolled Black students fell for a third consecutive year since the Supreme Court ruling, to 9.3%, while the share of Asian American students rose to 43.2%.
Harvard has already secured rulings from other judges rejecting administration efforts to terminate more than $2 billion in federal funding, and Monday’s decision adds to that run of courtroom defeats. The Justice Department and Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the government could still seek to correct the procedural shortcomings identified by Joun and bring a fresh case.
More in USA
USAUS Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to set aside California ballots on eve of midterms
USADeadly Southwest floods force evacuations and move a Colorado voting centre on the eve of Election Day
USA