A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from demanding detailed student admissions data from colleges, a mandate that a group of 17 Democratic state attorneys general have argued is unlawful.
The order, from Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the Federal District Court in Boston, was a victory for universities, at least for the moment. Schools were facing potential financial penalties if they missed a March 18 deadline to hand over the data.
The 17 attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that argued that the administration’s demand for the past seven years of student application data — including information on race, gender, test scores and grade point averages — was rushed. They also said the request created the potential for identifying individual students and revealing personal information, such as financial aid.
Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, applauded the ruling, saying the admissions policy was another front in an attempt to stamp out policies aimed at promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Colleges shouldn’t be forced to turn over massive amounts of student data as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks against D.E.I.,” she said in a statement. “We won a court order stopping this mandate as our case continues, and we’ll keep fighting to protect our students.”
A spokeswoman for the Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Trump ordered the new policy in August after repeatedly raising concerns that universities were still relying on race-conscious admissions, which were overturned in 2023 in a landmark Supreme Court ruling. The court allowed for race to be considered in some instances, and universities had said they remained committed to diversity.
Linda McMahon, the education secretary, has said the administration’s policy was a way to scrutinize whether colleges were abiding by the ruling. Her agency helped create agreements with Brown University and Columbia University last year that reversed cuts to research funding in return for similar admissions data from the schools, among other things.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
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