DOJ Sues Harvard University for Applicant Admissions Data (2)

The Justice Department sued Harvard University Friday for allegedly stonewalling on requests for applicant-level admissions data needed for its investigation of the school’s compliance with federal civil rights laws.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said the requested-but-withheld documents would help it ensure several Harvard schools are complying with the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, which struck down the school’s race-conscious admissions policy.

“At every turn, Harvard has thwarted the Department’s efforts to investigate potential discrimination,” the government said. “It has slow-walked the pace of production and refused to provide pertinent documents relating to applicant-level admissions decisions.”

The lawsuit is the latest in a showdown between the school and the Trump administration. What began as criticisms of Harvard and other elite colleges for failing to adequately address antisemitism on campus broadened into a bigger standoff over diversity programs and accusations of political bias.

Harvard resisted making a settlement payment to the federal government or continued oversight through a monitor like several other universities, and also successfully sued the administration over its effort to freeze more than $2 billion in research funding and prevent it from enrolling international students.

The resistance also manifested by withholding documents for an inquiry that began in April 2025, according to the lawsuit. The government zeroed in on Harvard’s acceptance of federal money, and said recipients must make “timely, complete, and accurate compliance reports” and “permit access” to certain documents to ensure compliance with a law that bars discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.

The government wants a federal judge to declare that Harvard isn’t complying with Title VI and to order the institution to release the requested documents.

“Providing requested data is a basic expectation of any credible compliance process, and refusal to cooperate creates concerns about university practices,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “If Harvard has stopped discriminating, it should happily share the data necessary to prove it.”

Harvard said in an emailed statement that it responded to the federal government’s requests “in good faith” and is willing to work with them as required by law.

“The University will continue to defend itself against these retaliatory actions which have been initiated simply because Harvard refused to surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights in response to unlawful government overreach,” the university said.

The case is U.S. v. President and Fellows of Harvard Coll., D. Mass., No. 1:26-cv-10844, complaint filed 2/13/26.