February 16, 2026
Whereas Harvard has refused to bow down, authorized specialists spotlight how the lawsuit having “nothing to do with defending the civil rights of any pupil.”
After the Division of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit towards Harvard College over allegations that the varsity isn’t complying with the 2023 affirmative motion ban, authorized specialists are warning the Trump Administration of potential privateness hurdles forward, in accordance with The Harvard Crimson.
The Feb. 13 swimsuit may current violations of the Household Instructional Rights and Privateness Act (FERPA) – a federal regulation banning pupil information that forestall particular person candidates from being disclosed.
Because the DOJ is demanding applicant-level admissions information, resembling grades, standardized check scores, race, and inside evaluations, FERPA may very well be violated when information factors are mixed, even after names are eliminated, as a result of this makes particular person college students identifiable.
Various authorized specialists are sounding the alarm, together with Vinay Harpalani, a College of New Mexico regulation professor, who says he could be shocked if the administration is profitable in its calls for. “That dangers specific privateness issues there,” Harpalani mentioned.
“If the person information from a single applicant can all be linked — all the info, the grade, the check rating, their race, ethnicity, different options about them — then that applicant would possibly be capable to be recognized as a person. And that may very well be problematic, that would run in violation of the FERPA.”
In keeping with The Hill, the DOJ, below the management of Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi, claims the Ivy League establishment, which was on the forefront of the Supreme Courtroom’s controversial reversal, has prevented doc launch for over 10 months. Bondi says the swimsuit is a matter of wanting “higher from our nation’s instructional establishments.”
Harvard has did not disclose the info we have to be sure that its admissions are freed from discrimination — we’ll proceed preventing to place advantage over DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] throughout America,” the AG mentioned.
Nevertheless, Jonathan D. Glater, a College of California, Berkeley regulation professor, says the division could hit some blocks since FERPA doesn’t give them authority to entry pupil admissions information as they don’t seem to be a listed entity.
He continues to say that the DOJ could also be out of its league relating to understanding the ins and outs of admissions selections and the issue of evaluating discretionary variables.
“Pupil personally identifiable info is protected by FERPA. The DOJ will not be a listed entity, and this isn’t a part of a felony investigation, so I’m unsure how this works,” the regulation professor defined.
“The School doesn’t admit everybody with excellent check scores and ideal grades, for instance. Different elements are at pla,y and the method is nuanced. I have no idea how nuanced a course of the DOJ is ready to tolerate.”
Whereas a Harvard spokesperson says the varsity “will proceed to defend itself towards these retaliatory actions which have been initiated just because Harvard refused to give up its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights in response to illegal authorities overreach,” Boston College regulation professor Jonathan P. Feingold touched on the lawsuit having “nothing to do with defending the civil rights of any pupil.”
“This gambit on the a part of the federal authorities is a part of a much wider effort to cripple establishments’ potential to really have truthful admissions processes that bear in mind a complete vary of things past standardized check scores,” Feingold mentioned.
There could also be some fact to Feingold’s viewpoint. The most recent lawsuit is one among a number of launched by President Donald Trump and his administration towards Harvard. President Trump has launched authorized motion towards the varsity and demanded that it pay a $1 billion tremendous, following a report from The New York Instances that his administration was stepping again from a money request in negotiations with the varsity.
He additionally took a serious blow in September 2025, when a choose dominated that the White Home’s $2.7 billion freeze on federal funding for Harvard was unconstitutional.
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