Judge pauses Harvard data fight

A federal judge in Boston dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against Harvard University on Monday.

The suit sought to compel the university to release admissions records that federal investigators claimed were withheld.

The Justice Department argued that Harvard had obstructed its probe into potential discrimination in the admissions process.

The agency requested a court order to force the delivery of the documents.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun rejected the request based on procedural deficiencies.

He determined that the Department of Justice did not complete the required administrative steps before initiating the legal action.

Joun noted that agencies must first notify recipients of their non-compliance and establish that voluntary cooperation failed before seeking judicial enforcement.

The ruling addresses the procedural history of the case rather than the merits of the discrimination allegations.

Joun wrote that he decided a limited question regarding whether the government satisfied the prerequisites for enforcement at this stage.

The decision does not determine if Harvard discriminated or if the agencies can lawfully seek specific applicant-level data.

It also does not settle whether Harvard will eventually be required to provide the information.

The dispute originated in 2025 when the Justice Department launched a compliance review of Harvard’s admissions practices for its undergraduate, medical, and law schools. Officials demanded five years of data, including grades, test scores, essays, extracurricular activities, outcomes, and race and ethnicity information. The goal was to determine if the university continued to consider race in admissions decisions, a practice the Supreme Court barred in 2023. This legal battle is part of a wider administration effort to challenge colleges accused of using race in admissions. In October, the Justice Department found that the University of California, Los Angeles, law school illegally considered race. Similar findings were issued against UCLA’s medical school, UC Berkeley Law School, and the University of California, San Diego, medical school. Neither Harvard nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment on the Monday ruling.