Federal Judge Halts Trump’s College Race Data Collection Requirement

A Boston federal judge has temporarily stopped the Trump administration from forcing universities to submit race-related admissions data by next week. The ruling came after 17 Democratic state attorneys general challenged the new Education Department requirement designed to monitor compliance with the Supreme Court's 2023 affirmative action ban.

A federal judge in Boston has put a temporary halt to the Trump administration’s mandate requiring colleges and universities to submit detailed race-related admissions information by next week.

U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV granted a temporary restraining order Friday following a lawsuit filed by 17 Democratic state attorneys general who challenged the new Education Department requirement.

The contested mandate would have forced schools receiving federal student aid funding to provide detailed admissions data broken down by race and gender of their student populations. Federal officials intended to use this information to monitor whether institutions are following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that eliminated affirmative action in college admissions.

Judge Saylor, nominated during the George W. Bush presidency, recognized that educational institutions across the country were facing a Wednesday deadline to submit the required information. He pushed back that deadline to March 25 to allow time for a full hearing on the states’ legal challenge and ensure an “orderly resolution of the issues.”

The Education Department has not yet provided a response to requests for comment on the court’s decision.

The disputed information would have been collected through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System surveys, a data collection program that the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics has operated since 1986 to gather university information on topics including financial data, admissions processes, and student outcomes.

Trump ordered changes to the survey system in an August directive, citing insufficient data to determine whether race continues to influence admissions decisions following the Supreme Court ruling, particularly given what he called the “rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon subsequently announced that higher education institutions would be required to submit undergraduate applicant and enrollment data separated by race and gender categories.

The Office of Management and Budget formalized these new data collection requirements in December, requesting information covering the 2025-2026 academic year plus the previous six years.