Courts and Higher Education Policy

A federal judge in Boston on Friday partly halted the Trump administration’s order requiring 17 states’ public universities to turn over seven years of race‑ and sex‑disaggregated admissions data, finding that the 120‑day presidential deadline produced a "rushed and chaotic" rollout and inadequate notice‑and‑comment by the National Center for Education Statistics. The administration has said the data are needed to test suspicions that colleges are using personal statements and other proxies to consider race after the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, while the Education Department defended the requirement as transparency for taxpayers and tied it to prior Brown and Columbia settlements — and Secretary Linda McMahon warned of Title IV consequences for institutions that refuse to comply.