Trump’s DOJ Takes on Harvard: Unpacking the Legal Battle Over Race-Based Admissions

The Trump administration has initiated legal action against Harvard University, alleging that the institution is non-compliant with a federal request to submit admissions records. The Justice Department’s move aims to verify whether the Ivy League school has ceased using affirmative action in its admissions process.

Filed on Friday in a Massachusetts federal court, the lawsuit accuses Harvard of obstructing a discrimination investigation. The Justice Department claims the university is refusing to cooperate with the federal probe and is seeking a court order to compel Harvard to release the requested documents.

Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division of the department, indicated that Harvard’s lack of cooperation raises concerns. “If Harvard has indeed stopped discriminatory practices, it should be willing to provide the necessary data to substantiate this,” Dhillon stated.

Harvard has responded by asserting that it has been cooperating with the government’s inquiries. The university maintains that its admissions policies align with the Supreme Court’s ruling that prohibits the use of affirmative action.

“Harvard will continue to stand firm against these retaliatory measures, which seem to have been initiated because the university refused to forfeit its autonomy or compromise its constitutional rights in the face of unlawful governmental pressure,” Harvard declared in its statement.

The suit is the latest salvo in President Donald Trump’s standoff with Harvard, which has faced billions of dollars in funding cuts and other sanctions after it rejected a list of demands from the administration last year.

Trump officials have said they’re taking action against Harvard over allegations of anti-Jewish bias on campus. Harvard officials say they’re facing unconstitutional retaliation for refusing to adopt the administration’s ideological views. The administration is appealing a judge’s orders that sided with Harvard in two lawsuits.

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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