The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division has sued Harvard University for allegedly withholding information that they say is necessary to determine if their admissions practices are free of discrimination.
In 2023, the United States Supreme Court declared affirmative action unconstitutional, ruling that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process actively violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion at the time.
The Trump Administration’s lawsuit alleges that Harvard “repeatedly slow-walked the pace of production and refused to produce pertinent data and documents requested by the DOJ.”
Outlined in the complaint are allegations that Harvard “violated Title VI by failing to comply with the DOJ’s request for sufficient document production for compliance review.”
The DOJ also accuses Harvard of breaching a “material term” of their federal financial assistance by “failing to make timely and complete document productions or otherwise permitting the DOJ to access Harvard’s applicant-level admissions data.”
[RELATED: Supreme Court Declares Race-Conscious College Admissions Unconstitutional in Harvard Case]
“Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice is demanding better from our nation’s educational institutions,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement Friday.
“Harvard has failed to disclose the data we need to ensure that its admissions are free of discrimination — we will continue fighting to put merit over DEI across America,” she said.
“The Justice Department will not allow universities to flout our nation’s federal civil rights laws by refusing to provide the information required for our review,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Providing requested data is a basic expectation of any credible compliance process, and refusal to cooperate creates concerns about university practices,” Dhillon said. “If Harvard has stopped discriminating, it should happily share the data necessary to prove it.”
With this lawsuit, the DOJ seeks only to compel Harvard to produce documents “related to any consideration of race in admissions” and does not levy any accusation of racial discrimination.
Click Here to Read the DOJ’s Full Press Release
The request at the heart of this challenge originated when the agency launched an investigation into the University in April of last year.
Early in the month, the DOJ sent a letter asking Harvard for information regarding its compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling, as well as the supporting documents to back it up.
In May, the University provided an initial round of documents, but the DOJ contends that this did not include much of what was requested, including “applicant-level admissions data and documents.”
A second round of documents was shared shortly thereafter, but applicant-level information was again said to have been excluded.
The DOJ goes on to explain in the complaint that they further communicated with Harvard about the requested data in September, extending their deadline to produce the documentation into October, but such information has still not yet been shared.
Click Here to Read the DOJ’s Full Complaint
In a statement shared with Fox News Digital this past Friday, Harvard pushed back on the accusations made by the DOJ in their complaint.
“Harvard is committed to following the law, including civil rights laws in connection with admissions and financial aid, and Harvard has complied with and continues to comply with the law under the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) decision,” they said.
“Harvard has been responding to the government’s inquiries in good faith and continues to be willing to engage with the government according to the process required by law,” the statement continued.
“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 statement added.
