Judge Dismisses Trump Administration Lawsuit Against Harvard

Ryan J. Farrick — November 7, 2026

The Widener Library at Harvard University. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Originally posted by Flicker user Joseph Williams. (CCA-BY-2.0). (source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvard_University_Widener_Library.jpg).

“Harvard has failed to disclose the data we need to ensure that its admissions are free of discrimination,” then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February.

A federal judge had dismissed a Trump administration-led lawsuit that sought to compel Harvard to turn over documents as part of an investigation as to whether the university continues to consider race in student admissions.

According to CNN, Boston-based U.S. District Judge Myong Joun rejected the Justice Department lawsuit, which Harvard argued was part of a further-reaching and politically-charged campaign of retaliation against some of the country’s most prominent universities.

The Department of Justice first filed its lawsuit against Harvard in February. In court documents, government lawyers claimed that Harvard failed to comply with an investigation into the school’s admissions process and decisions.

“Harvard has failed to disclose the data we need to ensure that its admissions are free of discrimination,” then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit was filed three years after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling limiting the ways in which schools, colleges, and universities can legally consider race and ethnicity when making admissions decisions. The Trump administration later lent its support to a separate federal probe led by the U.S. Department of Education.

Statue of Lady Justice with Scales; image by deep Bhullar, via Pexels.com.

But, on Monday, Joun ruled against the Justice and Education departments, finding they could not prove that they had followed the correct procedural steps to initiate litigation.

“A deadline and a threat to sue, standing alone, do not necessarily demonstrate compliance” with the Justice Department’s internal processes to resolve disputes over records requests, Joun said.

Joun also found that the Education Department’s claim suffered from procedural issues of its own, but emphasized that his ruling does not address the government’s claim of potential discrimination.

“Nothing in this decision converts the Government’s request for information into an accusation of present discrimination or resolves Harvard’s underlying Title VII compliance,” he wrote.

“The ruling does not determine whether Harvard has discriminated, whether the agencies may lawfully seek appropriately defined applicant-level data, or whether Harvard may ultimately be required to provide such data,” Joun said.

“The Government may be able to identify a qualifying determination or cure the procedural deficiency, but it has not supplied a sufficient basis for the judicial relief currently sought,” he wrote.

The New York Times notes that Harvard has repeatedly panned the lawsuit, in one instance describing it as “part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign” against the school.