State Lawyers Block Trump‑Era College Data Push

A federal judge in Boston has stopped the Trump‑era Department of Education from demanding years of race and gender data from public universities in 17 states. The order was requested by the Democratic attorneys general of those states, who are fighting a new survey that would have forced schools to hand over detailed admissions records. The goal of the survey was to check whether universities still use race in their decisions, a practice that the Supreme Court ruled against last year. The judge said the Department has legal power to ask for such information, but it rushed the new rules without talking properly to colleges. That haste could cause mistakes that put schools at risk of fines or investigations. The Department had also cut many staff members, making it hard to run the surveys correctly. States like New York, California and Massachusetts said the survey’s quick rollout could force colleges to scramble for sensitive data that they didn’t want to share. They argued that the Department’s approach was arbitrary and unlawful. The New York attorney general praised the ruling, saying schools should not have to juggle years of private information for a demand that is “unnecessary. ”The Department, created under President Trump, wanted to see if race was still a factor in admissions because it believed universities were using hidden racial cues. The judge noted that the Department’s plan was not carefully developed and did not involve universities in the discussion. This lack of communication, combined with staff cuts, made it difficult to manage the new survey. After the lawsuit, the judge issued temporary orders that pause the data request until the schools’ deadlines. He is now deciding whether to extend these orders to other universities, both public and private. The Department has not responded to requests for comment. The case highlights a clash between state officials who want to protect colleges from sudden data demands and the federal government’s attempt to monitor admissions practices after a Supreme Court ruling.