Courts and Trump Administration

A federal judge in Boston issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking President Donald Trump from immediately compelling colleges and universities nationwide to turn over detailed admissions data by race and gender. U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV extended the administration’s deadline by 12 days, until March 25, to allow fuller consideration of a lawsuit filed by 17 Democratic state attorneys general. Trump’s August directive ordered Education Secretary Linda McMahon to have all federally funded schools submit several years of admissions, applicant‑pool, and enrollment data broken down by race and gender, framed as an effort to enforce the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on race‑conscious admissions. The states argue they were given too little time to assemble seven years of records and accuse the administration of trying to repurpose the National Center for Education Statistics into a quasi‑law‑enforcement tool to advance partisan aims rather than neutral data collection. The ruling doesn’t decide the policy’s legality but slows a key piece of the White House’s campaign against perceived noncompliance with the affirmative‑action ruling, buying time for colleges and states that say the demand is onerous and politically driven.