On November 2nd local time, a federal judge in the United States dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration demanding Harvard University provide its enrollment records.
This is Harvard University’s latest victory in the battle with the White House. In August of this year, a U.S. federal judge dismissed another lawsuit filed by the Trump administration against Harvard University. The Trump administration had accused Harvard of tolerating “anti-Semitism” during protests supporting Palestinians held on campus after October 7, 2023.
In February of this year, the United States Department of Justice sued Harvard University, accusing it of failing to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigation into its admissions decisions. Subsequently, the Department of Justice included a similar investigation by the Ministry of Education within the lawsuit. The purpose of the lawsuit is to force Harvard University to hand over its records in order to investigate whether the university still considers race when making admissions decisions.
However, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education have been unable to demonstrate that they followed necessary procedural steps before filing suit regarding Harvard University's admissions data.
Trump administration officials argued in the lawsuit that Harvard University concealed information during the federal investigation into whether there was racial discrimination against applicants. However, Harvard University argued that the government’s information request was too broad, and it would reveal sensitive information about the identities of hundreds of thousands of applicants.
The judge did not rule on whether there is discrimination in Harvard University’s admissions process, or whether the government has the authority to compel the university to hand over these records according to the law. The Trump administration may file another similar lawsuit.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution prohibits universities from considering applicants’ race in the admissions process. At that time, media hailed this as a landmark decision that overturned the “affirmative action” practices that had been in place in the United States for decades. The American website “Politico News Network” noted that Harvard University was the main target of this ruling.
Havard University's data released last week showed that since the U.S. Supreme Court banned the consideration of racial factors in admissions policies, the proportion of African-American students among freshmen has decreased for the third consecutive year, from 11.5% to 9.3%.
The conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard University has escalated, starting in April 2025. At that time, Harvard University refused to comply with the reforms regarding admissions and discipline policies proposed by the White House, claiming that these policies violated the right to free speech. Prior to this, U.S. President Donald Trump had accused Harvard of having a long-standing "serious anti-Semitism."
The White House responded by freezing a federal grant of over $2 billion from Harvard University.
In addition, the White House reviewed the approximately $9 billion in grants and contracts awarded to that university, but did not withdraw any of them. Trump also attempted to cancel Harvard's tax exemption status and restrict Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students. These measures were later blocked by federal courts.
