A federal judge shot down the Trump administration’s demand that Harvard University turn over details of its admissions process, saying Monday that the Department of Justice didn’t prove it did enough to negotiate with the school before resorting to a lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, a Biden appointee in Massachusetts who has emerged as a frequent legal stumbling block for President Trump, said the Justice Department may eventually be able to sue, but for now its resort to the court was premature.
Judge Joun also specifically said his ruling does not conclude that the requests themselves were valid.
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“Those questions remain open,” he wrote. “Nothing in this decision converts the government’s request for information into an accusation of present discrimination or resolves Harvard’s underlying Title VI compliance.”
The Justice Department has been tracking schools’ admissions policies in the wake of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that struck down Harvard’s admissions policy that benefitted Black and Hispanic applicants and penalized Asian American applicants.
The department has issued findings and brought compliance lawsuits against a number of major institutions.
In the case of Harvard, the Justice Department had tried to get detailed data on admissions in the years since the previous case.
Harvard said it turned over information but the government said it didn’t include the “applicant-level” data the feds had sought.
As a recipient of federal education funds, Harvard is bound by national civil rights laws. That includes a duty to cooperate in providing access to its records.
Judge Joun said the government didn’t first warn Harvard that it would sue if the records weren’t forthcoming. He said that was a crucial “failure” that dooms the Justice Department’s case at this stage.
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