Federal Judge Blocks Trump DOJ From Getting States’ College Admissions Data – RedState
One of the priorities of President Trump’s second term was to end the discriminatory practice of using an applicant’s race as a criterion for college admission. To that end, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) looked at admissions records from higher education institutions across the country to determine the extent of the problem.
On Saturday, we learned that a federal judge had blocked this data collection in 17 states, in response to a lawsuit filed by those states’ Democratic attorneys general.
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s collection of admissions data at public universities in 17 states, dealing a major blow to his crackdown on the use of race in college admissions.
The administration significantly expanded the scope of admissions information that colleges must submit to the federal government after Trump issued an August memo directing the Education Department to do so. The move is a key part of the Trump administration’s efforts to determine whether schools discriminate against applicants based on race.
But a group of Democratic attorneys general from 17 states sued in early March to block the data collection.
Massachusetts District Court Judge Dennis Saylor, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in an order issued Friday evening that the investigation was created in a “rushed and chaotic manner” and that problems with it were “compounded” by the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down the Department of Education.
The information requested included data on race, ethnicity, gender, family income and a few other demographic factors. The data request also sought things like test scores and GPAs. The DOJ has argued that the purpose of data extraction and review is to reduce racial and ethnic discrimination in college admissions.
Three million student records are involved in this case, including those of students in Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
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The decision was mixed, at least in part:
But Saylor’s ruling was not a complete victory for the states, with the judge writing that the agency has the authority to collect the data it seeks.
Saylor also said he saw no reason to prevent the department from using it to investigate potential discrimination, rejecting the states’ argument that Trump would use the data to punish colleges and could impose harsh penalties such as loss of federal funding.
Part of Judge Saylor’s decision was also based on the “rushed and chaotic manner” in which the data request was developed, although it is difficult to see how this can be determined, let alone quantified.
The Trump administration’s data investigation is believed to be the result of a 2023 Supreme Court decision, Students for Fair Admission, Inc. v. Harvardwhich largely eliminated the use of race in college admissions.
As of this writing, there is no indication whether the Trump administration will seek to appeal this decision, but it seems likely that it will. Stay tuned.
Editor’s note: President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America’s children get the education they deserve.
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