Harvard University has responded to a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit regarding demands that the Ivy League school hand over its admissions data, denying claims made by the government.
“Harvard has been responding to the government’s inquiries in good faith and continues to be willing to engage with the government according to the process required by law,” a university spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Feb. 13.
The spokesperson said that Harvard “will continue to defend itself against these retaliatory actions which have been initiated simply because Harvard refused to surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights in response to unlawful government overreach.”
The school will also comply with federal laws regarding its admissions policies and financial aid, as it has “complied with and continues to comply with the law under the Students for Fair Admissions” decision that was handed down by the Supreme Court.
On Feb. 13, the DOJ filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Massachusetts against Harvard, accusing it of not complying with the administration’s demand to hand over relevant records following the landmark 2023 Supreme Court decision that scrapped affirmative action in college admissions. The DOJ sought a court order compelling the university to turn over the records.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division, said Harvard’s alleged refusal is problematic because if it “has stopped discriminating, it should happily share the data necessary to prove it.”
The DOJ’s latest complaint alleges: “Harvard made its most recent production of admissions-related documents in May 2025. The repeatedly extended deadlines for document production have long passed.”
The suit is the latest development in the Trump administration’s standoff with Harvard, which has faced billions of dollars in funding cuts and other sanctions since it rejected demands from the administration in 2025. Aside from claims that the school has not complied with the DOJ on its affirmative action investigation, the Justice Department and other federal agencies have alleged that Harvard and other top colleges allowed anti-Semitism to flourish on their campuses in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the subsequent conflict that started in 2023.
Harvard officials have said they’re facing unconstitutional retaliation for refusing to adopt the administration’s ideological views. The Trump administration, separately, is appealing a judge’s orders that sided with Harvard in two lawsuits.
The White House is pressing universities across the United States to provide similar data to determine whether they have continued to factor race into their admissions decisions. The Department of Education took steps to collect more detailed admissions data from colleges after President Donald Trump ordered the department to collect such data. The administration claimed that the information was needed because schools were ignoring the Supreme Court decision.
The lawsuit comes less than two weeks after Trump wrote in a statement on social media that his administration was seeking $1 billion from Harvard to settle investigations into various school policies.
