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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has initiated legal proceedings against Harvard University, alleging the institution has been uncooperative in providing admissions records requested by the Justice Department. This move aims to verify whether the prestigious Ivy League school has ceased utilizing affirmative action in its admissions process.
Filed in a Massachusetts federal court on Friday, the lawsuit claims Harvard has hindered efforts to scrutinize possible discriminatory practices. The Justice Department accuses the university of non-compliance with a federal probe and seeks a court order compelling Harvard to release the requested documents.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, highlighted Harvard’s non-compliance as a significant concern. “If Harvard has indeed ceased discriminatory practices, it should willingly provide the necessary data to demonstrate this,” Dhillon remarked in a statement.
In response, Harvard stated that it has been cooperating with government inquiries and adheres to the Supreme Court’s ruling prohibiting affirmative action in admissions. The university emphasized its commitment to defending itself against what it describes as retaliatory measures from the government.
“Harvard remains firm in safeguarding its independence and constitutional rights against these unlawful government demands,” the university asserted.
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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