A federal judge in Boston on Friday barred the U.S. Department of Education from compelling public universities in 17 states to hand over sweeping admissions data that the agency sought to determine whether race remains a factor in college admissions. U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV granted a preliminary injunction at the request of Democratic state attorneys general, finding the department’s rapid rollout of the reporting requirement was improperly handled and placed institutions at risk of enforcement actions.
The Education Department had used the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to request seven years of admissions records by race and sex, saying the information was needed to track compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decisions that effectively ended race-conscious affirmative action in higher education. The data demand followed a directive from President Donald Trump, who in an August memorandum accused colleges of relying on “hidden racial proxies” and called for improved federal oversight.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who joined the multistate challenge, praised the ruling and warned that colleges should not be forced “to produce years of sensitive information to satisfy an arbitrary and unlawful demand.” The lawsuit, filed last month, argued the department adopted the new IPEDS reporting requirements in a rushed manner that left universities little time to prepare and vulnerable to inadvertent errors that could trigger penalties or federal investigations.
Saylor said while the Education Department may have statutory authority to seek such information, the way the agency implemented the new requirements was chaotic and lacked proper engagement with higher education institutions. The judge noted that prior personnel cuts to the department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) left too few employees to manage the expanded surveys, compounding the problems created by an expedited rollout.
Before issuing the preliminary injunction, Saylor had placed temporary restraining orders that extended the deadline for the affected schools to complete the IPEDS survey while he considered the case. On Tuesday he likewise extended the deadline for dozens of other public and private universities as he weighs whether they too should be protected from the reporting mandate. The ruling effectively pauses the administration’s effort to collect the requested historical admissions data from the 17 states while the court examines the legal challenge.
The Education Department did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The litigation underscores a broader clash between the Biden-era enforcement apparatus and the Trump administration’s policy priorities, and comes amid growing litigation over federal attempts to regulate how states and institutions collect and report demographic information. The injunction leaves open further legal fights over whether and how the department can obtain detailed, multi-year admissions data in pursuit of civil-rights compliance reviews.