The Justice Department has launched a legal offensive against Harvard University, filing a lawsuit Thursday that accuses the Ivy League institution of stonewalling federal investigators seeking admissions data in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling on race-conscious admissions.
Filed on February 13, 2026, the lawsuit marks a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s scrutiny of elite universities and their compliance with the high court’s 2023 decision that effectively ended affirmative action in higher education. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division alleges Harvard has “unlawfully withheld” critical admissions information needed to verify the university is no longer considering race in its selection process.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice is demanding better from our nation’s educational institutions,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement announcing the action.
Information Bottleneck
The lawsuit doesn’t explicitly accuse Harvard of ongoing racial discrimination. Instead, it focuses on what the DOJ characterizes as the university’s refusal to cooperate with federal investigators. According to court documents, Harvard has allegedly “slow-walked document production” and declined to provide individualized applicant data, admissions policies, and internal correspondence related to race, ethnicity, and diversity initiatives.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon didn’t mince words when describing Harvard’s alleged obstruction. “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,” she stated.
What’s at stake? As a recipient of federal funding, Harvard is bound by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The DOJ argues that compliance with document requests is part of that obligation — especially following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which found the university’s previous race-conscious admissions process violated Title VI.
A History of Scrutiny
The legal clash comes after years of intense debate over Harvard’s admissions practices. In 2019, a district court initially upheld Harvard’s race-conscious approach, but the Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2023, effectively ending affirmative action in college admissions nationwide.
“Providing requested data is a basic expectation of any credible compliance process, and refusal to cooperate creates concerns about university practices,” Dhillon added. “If Harvard has stopped discriminating, it should happily share the data necessary to prove it.”
Harvard responded to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling with a public statement affirming compliance while emphasizing its commitment to campus diversity. “We will certainly comply with the Court’s decision,” the university declared. “We write today to reaffirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences.”
Broader Context
The DOJ lawsuit represents just one front in the ongoing battle over college admissions. Harvard has faced additional legal challenges beyond race-based admissions. A separate lawsuit filed in 2023 targeted the university’s legacy admissions practices, claiming they disproportionately benefit white applicants. That complaint noted nearly 70% of legacy and donor-related admits are white, allegedly providing advantages to wealthy white students over others with similar or better qualifications, according to reports.
Attorney General Bondi has framed the current lawsuit as part of a broader push against diversity initiatives in higher education. “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 told reporters.
The full complaint, available on the Department of Justice website, outlines specific documents the government is seeking, including detailed admissions data and correspondence related to the Students for Fair Admissions case and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, according to the official release.
For Harvard, which has weathered numerous legal challenges to its admissions policies over the years, this latest battle underscores a new reality: even after the Supreme Court’s definitive ruling on race-conscious admissions, the scrutiny of how America’s elite institutions select their students shows no sign of fading.
