Federal judge dismisses Trump administration’s Harvard admissions probe case

A federal judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit by the Trump administration seeking to force Harvard University to turn over records for an investigation into whether it continues to consider race in its student admissions process.

US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston rejected the US Department of Justice’s lawsuit, which Harvard contends was filed as part of a broader campaign by the Republican president’s administration against the Ivy League school.

Harvard has been a top target of the administration’s effort to leverage federal funding and government power to force changes at universities that Trump says are dominated by “radical left” ideologies.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university has already secured rulings from other judges rejecting the administration’s efforts to terminate over $2 billion in grants , block the school from hosting international students and sue it for allegedly failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment.

The Justice Department filed the case before Joun in February , arguing that Harvard was not complying with investigations into whether it is following the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling rejecting race-conscious admissions programs used to boost enrollment of minority students.

The administration contends that the Justice Department and the US Department of Education need years of applicant-level admissions data to determine whether race remains a factor in Harvard’s admissions decisions.

The university’s lawyers countered that the case was filed to retaliate against Harvard for refusing demands that it overhaul its governance, hiring and academic programs to align with the administration’s agenda.

They said the lawsuit was filed after Trump announced in early February that he was ending settlement talks and wanted $1 billion in damages from Harvard, which he said had “been, for a long time, behaving very badly.”

Harvard said the Justice Department sued without first taking legally required steps aimed at securing the university’s voluntary compliance with its demands for years of records, which Harvard said included sensitive data on thousands of high school students who sought admission.

The Justice Department sought the records as part of an investigation into whether Harvard is complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars racial discrimination in education programs.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

周一，一名联邦法官驳回了特朗普政府提起的一项诉讼，该诉讼旨在迫使哈佛大学交出记录，以便调查该大学是否仍在学生招生过程中考虑种族因素。

波士顿的美国地区法官明俊驳回了美国司法部的诉讼。哈佛大学认为，该诉讼是共和党总统政府针对这所常春藤盟校发起的更广泛行动的一部分。

哈佛大学一直是特朗普政府利用联邦资金和政府权力迫使大学进行改革的重点目标，特朗普称这些大学被“激进左翼”意识形态所主导。

这所位于马萨诸塞州剑桥市的大学已经从其他法官那里获得了裁决，驳回了校方终止超过 20 亿美元的拨款、阻止学校接收国际学生以及起诉学校未能保护犹太和以色列学生免受骚扰的努力。

司法部于 2 月向 Joun 提起诉讼，认为哈佛大学没有配合调查，以确定其是否遵守美国最高法院 2023 年的裁决，该裁决驳回了旨在提高少数族裔学生入学率的种族意识招生计划。

校方认为，司法部和美国教育部需要多年的申请人录取数据，才能确定种族是否仍然是哈佛大学招生决定的一个因素。

该大学的律师反驳说，提起诉讼是为了报复哈佛大学拒绝其改革管理、招聘和学术项目以符合校方议程的要求。

他们表示，特朗普在 2 月初宣布结束和解谈判并向哈佛大学索赔 10 亿美元后，提起了诉讼。特朗普称哈佛大学“长期以来行为非常恶劣”。

哈佛大学表示，司法部在提起诉讼之前，没有采取法律要求的措施来确保该大学自愿遵守其要求，提供多年来的记录。哈佛大学称，这些记录包括数千名申请入学的高中生的敏感数据。

司法部要求获取这些记录，是为了调查哈佛大学是否遵守 1964 年《民权法案》第六章的规定，该章禁止在教育项目中存在种族歧视。

这是一则正在更新的新闻。