A federal judge has dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking Harvard’s admissions records, ruling that the government had not shown it completed required steps before asking a court to compel the university to turn them over.
U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun dismissed the case without prejudice on Nov. 2. That means the government may bring a new case after addressing the procedural issues described in the decision.
The lawsuit grew out of federal investigations into whether Harvard was complying with Title VI, which bars race discrimination in programs receiving federal funds. The government had sought records about admissions decisions after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on race-conscious admissions.
Joun described the decision as a limited procedural ruling. The court did not decide whether Harvard’s admissions practices comply with federal law or whether the government’s requests for records were justified on the merits.
The judge concluded that the government had not adequately established that it met the statutory prerequisites for judicial enforcement. The opinion said the Education Department could proceed after completing the required steps.
The administration’s case had asked the court to order Harvard to provide applicant-level information. Harvard argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the government had not followed the process required to obtain the records.
The ruling leaves open whether federal officials will take additional administrative steps and file again. The dismissal itself does not end the broader debate over how colleges assess compliance with the Supreme Court’s admissions decision.
The court’s narrow reasoning is important for readers following the case: the immediate outcome turned on the government’s path to court, not on a finding about the university’s current admissions policy. The case may return if the agencies satisfy the prerequisites identified by the judge.