Federal Judge Dismisses Admissions Lawsuit Against Harvard

A district court judge dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit seeking individual applicant records from Harvard on Monday afternoon, finding that the government failed to meet procedural requirements before suing the University.

Judge Myoung J. Joun’s 10-page opinion did not rule on the merits of the records request, leaving open the possibility that the government could bring a new lawsuit if it corrected its procedural missteps.

The dismissal marks a win for Harvard in a prolonged dispute over whether the University must hand over applicant-level admissions data to prove it is complying with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision barring race-conscious admissions.

The Justice Department sued Harvard in February to compel the University to hand over the records, arguing that it had “thwarted” and “slow-walked” a federal civil rights review by failing to meet deadlines for multiple records requests.

Harvard asked Joun to throw out the case on procedural grounds in June. He granted that request on Monday, finding that the Justice Department failed to demonstrate that it took the necessary steps to seek voluntary compliance before it moved to judicial enforcement.

Joun cited two procedural shortcomings in the government’s complaint: It did not allege the Justice Department had informed Harvard that it would sue if the University did not comply, or that it had communicated the “specific failure identified” to Harvard.

“A deadline and a threat to sue, standing alone, do not necessarily demonstrate compliance with the regulatory voluntary-compliance process where the agency seeks to enforce disputed demands for extensive information,” Joun wrote.

Joun also found that the Education Department failed to follow the proper procedural steps before folding its own admissions probe into the DOJ lawsuit in May.

Harvard, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At a September oral argument, Joun expressed skepticism about the government’s efforts to negotiate with Harvard before suing, describing its stance at one point as an “ultimatum.”

Harvard, for its part, has maintained that it provided the government with as much information as possible — more than 2,000 pages of documents — without divulging individualized records, which it says are privileged.

Harvard’s lawyers have also argued that the DOJ prematurely abandoned negotiations with the University in favor of litigation to advance a retaliatory campaign against Harvard for rebuffing the Trump administration’s demands last year.

Legal experts have separately said that the government’s information request could run up against the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a landmark statute restricting access to educational records.

The dismissal comes less than a week after Harvard College released demographic data for its Class of 2030 showing the proportion of enrolled Black students fell for the third consecutive year since the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling. The share of Black students in the Class of 2030 dropped to 9.3 percent, while the proportion of Asian American students rose to 43.2 percent.

Joun’s ruling did not address either the validity of the government’s records request or whether the lawsuit was brought “for an improper or retaliatory purpose.”

“Those questions remain open,” Joun 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.”

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.