Justice Department Sues Harvard: Unveiling Racial Factors in Admissions Under Federal Investigation

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has initiated legal action against Harvard University, alleging the institution’s non-compliance with a request for admissions records. The Justice Department seeks to verify that the prestigious Ivy League school has ceased employing affirmative action in its admissions processes.

In a filing made on Friday in a federal court in Massachusetts, the Justice Department contends that Harvard has obstructed its investigation into possible discriminatory practices. The lawsuit accuses Harvard of failing to cooperate with a federal probe and petitions the court to compel the university to release the requested documents.

Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the department’s Civil Rights Division, regards Harvard’s non-compliance as concerning. Dhillon remarked, “If Harvard has indeed ended discriminatory practices, it should willingly provide the necessary data to confirm this,” emphasizing the importance of transparency.

Harvard representatives have yet to issue a response to the lawsuit.

This legal confrontation marks the latest development in President Donald Trump’s ongoing dispute with Harvard. The university has already faced threats of substantial funding cuts and other punitive measures following its rejection of the administration’s demands the previous year.

Officials from Trump’s administration have attributed their actions to accusations of anti-Jewish prejudice on Harvard’s campus. In contrast, Harvard claims it is being unconstitutionally targeted for its refusal to align with the administration’s political viewpoints. The administration is currently challenging court rulings that have previously favored Harvard in related cases.

The Justice Department opened a compliance review into Harvard’s admissions practices last April on the same day the White House issued a series of sweeping demands aligned with Trump’s priorities. The agency told Harvard to hand over five years of admissions data for undergraduate applicants along with Harvard’s medical and law schools.

It asked for a trove of data including applicants’ grades, test scores, essays, extracurricular activities and admissions outcomes, along with their race and ethnicity. It asked for the data by April 25, 2025. The lawsuit said Harvard has not provided that data.

Justice Department officials said they need the data to determine whether Harvard has continued considering applicants’ race in admissions decisions. The Supreme Court barred affirmative action in admissions in 2023 after lawsuits challenged it at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Trump officials have accused colleges of continuing the practice, which the administration says discriminates against white and Asian American students.

The White House is separately pressing universities across the U.S. to providing similar data to determine whether they have continued to factor race into admissions decisions. The Education Department plans to collect more detailed admissions data from colleges after Trump signed an action suggesting schools were ignoring the Supreme Court decision.

Trump’s dispute with Harvard had appeared to be winding down last summer after the president repeatedly said they were finalizing a deal to restore Harvard’s federal funding. The deal never materialized, and Trump rekindled the conflict this month when he said Harvard must pay $1 billion as part of any deal, double what he previously demanded.

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