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The Department of Justice has taken the rare but necessary step of suing Harvard University after officials say the university refused to hand over applicant-level admissions records needed to determine whether race still plays a role in its admissions decisions. The complaint, filed in federal court on February 13, 2026, accuses Harvard of slow-walking document production and supplying only publicly available summaries instead of the individualized data the DOJ requested.
This conflict traces back to a compliance review the DOJ opened in April 2025 following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that struck down race-conscious admissions practices, and investigators have sought detailed records including test scores, GPAs, essays, and internal DEI communications. Harvard reportedly produced hundreds of pages in May 2025, but the Justice Department says those materials fell short of what was demanded and that extended deadlines were ignored. The lawsuit does not itself allege new wrongdoing beyond noncompliance with the document request; it seeks a court order to compel full cooperation.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, has been right to call out this conduct as unacceptable and hypocritical. As she bluntly put it, “If Harvard has stopped discriminating, it should happily share the data necessary to prove it,” a straightforward standard any institution should meet if it truly respects the rule of law. The elites at Harvard have long lectured the country about fairness while clinging to opaque processes that advantage favored groups, and the DOJ is finally demanding what transparency should have provided years ago.
This case is about more than one university; it’s about reasserting merit and enforcing federal civil-rights statutes where they apply, not about appeasing DEI bureaucracies that have hollowed out standards. When institutions take federal dollars, they sign up to follow federal law — that’s not political, that’s contractual and constitutional. The Justice Department’s action should put every college on notice: no more secret systems of preference hidden behind pieties about diversity.
Patriotic Americans who care about fairness and opportunity should demand that Harvard and other elites be held accountable, not rewarded with the presumption of innocence when they stonewall investigators. Congress and federal agencies should use every lawful lever — including funding conditionality — to force compliance and to ensure young Americans are judged on achievement, not on the color of their application. If Harvard truly believes it has reformed, the solution is simple: turn over the records and let the facts speak for themselves.
This lawsuit is a welcome sign that someone in Washington is finally enforcing the laws that protect all Americans, including those who have been sidelined by modern affirmative-action schemes. Harmeet Dhillon and the Civil Rights Division deserve credit for taking on an entrenched institution that has long operated above scrutiny, and law-abiding citizens should watch closely as the courts decide whether Harvard will comply or continue to hide behind privilege. Our country’s promise of equal treatment under the law depends on transparency, and nothing less will do.
