US judge dismisses Trump administration’s Harvard admissions probe case
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to compel Harvard University to release records for an investigation into whether race continues to influence its student admissions process.
US District Judge Myong Joun, based in Boston, rejected the case brought by the US Department of Justice. Harvard had argued that the lawsuit was part of a wider campaign by the Republican administration targeting the Ivy League institution.
Harvard has been a major focus of the administration’s efforts to use federal funding and government authority to push universities to make changes. Trump has accused several institutions of being dominated by what he describes as “radical left” ideologies.
The Massachusetts-based university has previously secured court rulings blocking other government actions, including attempts to withdraw more than $2 billion in grants, prevent it from enrolling international students and sue it over alleged failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit before Judge Joun in February, accusing Harvard of failing to cooperate with investigations into its compliance with a 2023 US Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the use of race-conscious admissions programmes to increase minority student enrolment.
The administration argued that the Justice Department and the US Department of Education required several years of individual applicant admissions records to establish whether race remained a consideration in Harvard’s selection process.
Harvard’s legal team maintained that the lawsuit was retaliation for the university’s refusal to accept demands to restructure its governance, employment practices and academic programmes in line with the administration’s agenda.
The university also argued that the case followed Trump’s announcement in early February that he was ending settlement negotiations and seeking $1 billion in damages, accusing Harvard of having “been, for a long time, behaving very badly.”
Harvard further contended that the Justice Department had filed the lawsuit without first following legally required procedures to obtain the institution’s voluntary compliance with its records request.
The university said the requested documents covered several years and included sensitive personal information belonging to thousands of high school students who had applied for admission.
The Justice Department sought the records as part of an investigation into whether Harvard was complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in federally funded education programmes.
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