Coalition sues Trump over college race data rule

By Esther Wickham
The Center Square

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over new federal requirements that colleges report detailed data linking race to admissions, financial aid and student outcomes.

The administration says the data will help enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. But the states argue the demands are unprecedented, overly burdensome and likely to produce unreliable data that could be used to launch politically motivated investigations of universities.

“The Trump Administration is on a fishing expedition, demanding unprecedented amounts of data from our colleges and universities under the guise of enforcing civil rights law,” Bonta said in a statement. “This latest sham demand threatens to turn a reliable tool into a partisan bludgeon. California is committed to following the law, and we’re going to court to make sure the Trump Administration does the same.”

The move follows the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, banning race-based admissions, amid concerns that some universities still use racial proxies like diversity statements.

“President Trump is ending discriminatory practices that are illegal, strip opportunities and scholarships from hardworking students and waste taxpayer dollars,” a White House spokesperson told The Center Square.

The memorandum directs the U.S. Department of Education to expand the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to collect extensive demographic and academic information about applicants and students, including test scores, income, financial aid and graduation outcomes broken down by race and sex.

The coalition claims the rule was rushed, ignores prior objections, and forces colleges to either quickly compile flawed data or risk penalties, making the policy unlawful and arbitrary.

“American taxpayers invest over $100 billion into higher education each year and deserve transparency on how their dollars are being spent,” Ellen Keast, press secretary for higher education with the Department of Education, told The Center Square. “The Department’s efforts will expand an existing transparency tool to show how universities are taking race into consideration in admissions. What exactly are State AGs trying to shield universities from?”

Bonta co-leads the lawsuit with two fellow Democrats – Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. They’re joined by Democratic attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington state and Wisconsin.

The Center Square reached out to the NAACP for comment, but did not receive a response.