Judge Tosses Trump Administration’s Suit for Harvard Admissions Records, for Now

A federal judge in Boston has thrown out the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking detailed Harvard admissions records, ruling Monday that the government had not shown it followed the required steps before taking the university to court. U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun dismissed the case without prejudice. That means the Justice Department can try again if it completes those steps or files a better-supported complaint.

The 10-page decision, filed Nov. 2 in Civil Action No. 26-10844, is narrow. Joun wrote that he was deciding “a limited question”: whether the government had adequately established, at this stage, that it met the prerequisites for asking a court to enforce its demand. He wrote that 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.”

What the government wanted from Harvard

According to the decision, the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Education opened reviews of Harvard’s admissions practices after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions. Their requests sought, among other things, applicant-level admissions information, academic measures, race and ethnicity, essays or other records, and admissions outcomes.

The Justice Department asked for records in April 2025 from Harvard College, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School. Harvard made productions in May 2025. The government says those productions lacked the applicant-level information it needed. Harvard says its productions were substantial and that the department did not engage with its objections about scope, burden and relevance. Harvard has said it gave the government more than 2,000 pages of documents without turning over individualized records, which it says are privileged, The Harvard Crimson reported. The Justice Department sued in February, arguing that Harvard had “thwarted” and “slow-walked” a federal civil rights review, according to the Crimson, and Harvard asked the court to dismiss the case in June.

Timeline: the Harvard admissions records fight

Why Judge Joun dismissed the case

Civil rights regulations require agencies to try to secure voluntary compliance before going to court. The key Justice Department rule, 28 C.F.R. § 42.108(d), requires the department to tell a recipient of federal funds what specific failure it has found and what action it will take if the problem is not fixed. Joun found that the amended complaint did not allege that the department told Harvard it would sue, and did not allege the specific failure it had identified. He called that gap “dispositive at this stage.”

The department had extended its deadline to Oct. 10, 2025, said no further extension would be granted, and said that failing to produce everything would be treated as a failure to cooperate. That was not enough, the judge wrote: “a deadline and a threat to sue, standing alone, do not necessarily demonstrate” compliance with the voluntary-compliance process when an agency is trying to enforce disputed demands for extensive information.

Joun reached a similar conclusion about the Education Department’s referral, writing that his ruling “does not prevent Education from proceeding after complying with those steps.” He also dismissed a separate breach-of-contract claim, finding that it rested on the same Title VI duty, and left the door open to “a properly supported contractual theory.” Harvard’s alternative request to pause the case was denied as moot. The ruling was first noted in our Nov. 2 Business Report.

What the ruling leaves open

The judge listed several issues he did not decide, including whether the requests are overbroad, whether the government acted for an improper or retaliatory purpose, and whether the case should wait for a related lawsuit, Massachusetts v. Department of Education. “Those questions remain open,” he 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.”

The ruling came less than a week after Harvard College released demographic data for its Class of 2030. The Crimson reported that the share of Black students fell to 9.3%, the third straight annual decline since the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling, while the share of Asian American students rose to 43.2%. Harvard, the Education Department and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to the Crimson’s requests for comment.

Readers can follow more Harvard and Cambridge news on our Cambridge, MA local news page, including recent stories on the Out of Town News kiosk in Harvard Square and the Harvard Kennedy School’s American Service Fellows.

Sources

• U.S. District Court (D. Mass.): Memorandum of Decision, United States v. Harvard, No. 26-cv-10844-MJJ (Nov. 2, 2026)
• AP News: Judge dismisses lawsuit against Harvard University over admissions records
• The Harvard Crimson: Federal Judge Dismisses Admissions Lawsuit Against Harvard
• Inside Higher Ed: DOJ, ED Demand for Harvard Admissions Info Dismissed—for Now