The lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court, seeks documents to assess compliance with a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-conscious college admissions programs
| Photo Credit:
BRIAN SNYDER
The Trump administration sued Harvard
University on Friday, accusing it of failing to comply with a
federal investigation and seeking documents to determine whether
the university had illegally considered race in its admissions
process.
The move comes less than two weeks after U.S. President
Donald Trump said his administration was seeking $1 billion from
Harvard to settle probes into school policies, after a news
report that said Trump had dropped his demand for a payment from
the Ivy League school.
Harvard representatives did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
Trump’s administration has been threatening to withhold
federal funds from Harvard and several other universities over
issues including pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war
in Gaza, campus diversity and transgender policies.
The Justice Department said on Friday in a press release
that Harvard had “repeatedly slow-walked the pace of production
and refused to produce pertinent data and documents,” including
admissions policies and correspondence related to banned
diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In the complaint filed in Boston federal court, Justice
Department lawyers said the documents requested will help assess
whether Harvard is complying with a 2023 decision by the U.S.
Supreme Court which said that race-conscious college admissions
programs are unconstitutional.
The Justice Department said it brought the lawsuit “solely
to compel Harvard to produce documents relating to any
consideration of race in admission” and “does not accuse Harvard
of any discriminatory conduct, nor does it seek monetary damages
or the revocation of federal funding.”
The administration last year attempted to cancel hundreds of
grants awarded to Harvard researchers on the grounds the school
failed to do enough to address harassment of Jewish students on
its campus, prompting Harvard to sue.
Trump’s attempts to freeze federal funds for Harvard have
faced legal resistance and the two sides have failed to reach a
deal thus far.
Published on February 13, 2026
