Key facts
- US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston rejected the Justice Department's lawsuit against Harvard.
- The department argued it needed years of applicant-level admissions data to test compliance with the 2023 Supreme Court ruling.
- Harvard's lawyers said the suit retaliated after the school refused demands to overhaul governance, hiring and academic programs.
- Harvard said the department sued without first taking legally required steps to secure voluntary compliance.
- Other judges have already rejected administration efforts to terminate over $2 billion in Harvard grants and block it from hosting international students.
A federal judge dismissed on Monday a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's administration that sought to force Harvard University to turn over records for an investigation into whether it continues to consider race in student admissions, Reuters reported on November 2.
US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston rejected the Justice Department's lawsuit. Harvard contends the case was filed as part of a broader campaign by the Republican president's administration against the Ivy League school, which the report says has been a top target of efforts to use federal funding and government power to force changes at universities.
The Justice Department filed the case before Joun in February, arguing Harvard was not complying with investigations into whether it is following the US Supreme Court's 2023 ruling rejecting race-conscious admissions programs used to boost enrollment of minority students. The administration contends the Justice Department and the US Department of Education need years of applicant-level admissions data to determine whether race remains a factor.
Harvard's lawyers countered that the case was filed to retaliate against the school for refusing demands that it overhaul its governance, hiring and academic programs. They said the lawsuit came after Trump announced in early February that he was ending settlement talks and wanted $1 billion in damages from Harvard, which he said had "been, for a long time, behaving very badly."
Harvard said the Justice Department sued without first taking legally required steps aimed at securing voluntary compliance with its demands for years of records, which Harvard said included sensitive data on thousands of high school students who sought admission. The department sought the records as part of an investigation into whether Harvard is complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars racial discrimination in education programs.
The report says Harvard has already secured rulings from other judges rejecting the administration's efforts to terminate over $2 billion in grants, block the school from hosting international students and sue it for allegedly failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment.