BOSTON – Recently, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Harvard University regarding its admissions practices. This case was initiated by the Justice Department, which claimed that Harvard was not cooperating in an investigation aimed at ensuring the university ceased using affirmative action in its admissions process.
The Justice Department accused Harvard of “thwarting” their efforts to investigate potential discrimination in admissions. They sought a court order to compel Harvard to provide records they believed were necessary to assess whether the university was, in fact, discriminating against applicants based on race.
However, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ruled that the Justice Department had not followed the necessary steps before filing the lawsuit. He pointed out that the agency needed to first notify Harvard about their noncompliance and attempt to secure the records voluntarily.
Despite the dismissal, Judge Joun clarified that this ruling does not settle the overall dispute regarding the admissions data. He stated, “I decide a limited question: whether the Government has adequately established… that it satisfied the prerequisites to judicial enforcement invoked in this complaint.” This means the legal battle over the data is not over yet.
Neither Harvard nor the Department of Justice provided comments following the ruling. This decision marks another setback for the Trump administration, which has faced multiple legal challenges against Harvard, including issues related to funding and allegations of antisemitism on campus.
The Justice Department launched a compliance review into Harvard’s admissions practices in 2025, requesting various data from the university. They wanted five years’ worth of admissions data from not just undergraduate programs but also medical and law schools. This included details like applicants’ grades, test scores, essays, extracurricular activities, and racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Officials argued that this data was essential to determine whether Harvard was still considering race in admissions decisions. This scrutiny intensified after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that prohibited affirmative action in college admissions, following lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
The effort to challenge Harvard’s admissions policies is part of a larger initiative by the Trump administration aimed at colleges accused of using race as a factor in their admissions decisions. For instance, in October, the Justice Department found that UCLA’s law school had illegally considered race in its admissions process, following similar findings against its medical school.
Additionally, the administration has also accused schools like UC Berkeley Law School and the medical school at UC San Diego of unfairly discriminating against white and Asian applicants.
