Civil Rights Enforcement

The Trump Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing the school of illegally withholding admissions records that DOJ says it needs to determine whether Harvard is still discriminating in its admissions process despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race‑conscious college admissions. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that 'Harvard has failed to disclose the data we need to ensure that its admissions are free of discrimination' and cast the suit as part of a broader push to 'put merit over DEI across America.' The case positions the federal government to test, in court, how far it can go in prying open selective universities’ files to police compliance with the high court’s decision, and will be watched closely by other schools that have been rewriting their policies in its wake. Although details of the complaint and the specific records sought have not yet been released, the filing marks a significant escalation in the administration’s campaign against what it calls discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion practices in higher education.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has opened a civil-rights investigation into whether delayed evacuation orders during the deadly January 7, 2025 Eaton Fire near Los Angeles unlawfully discriminated against residents of west Altadena, a historically Black neighborhood where 18 of the fire’s 19 deaths occurred. Bonta said months of meetings with survivors and the grassroots group Altadena for Accountability raised concerns that west Altadena received no evacuation warnings for hours after the fire ignited, even as homes were burning, while the east side of town was warned earlier. The probe will focus primarily on the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s alert and evacuation systems and whether race, age or disability played a role—directly or via policies that had a disparate impact—in who got timely notices to flee. Associated Press and earlier LA Times reporting found that by midnight, roughly six hours after ignition, no neighborhoods west of North Lake Avenue had been warned, and many residents say they left only after seeing flames rather than because of official alerts. Bonta’s move places California at the center of a broader national reckoning over how wildfire evacuations are prioritized and communicated in vulnerable communities, echoing similar failures seen in Paradise, Lahaina and Colorado’s Marshall Fire where older and disabled residents were least likely to receive or act on cellphone-based warnings.