The United States Department of Education announced Monday that its Office for Civil Rights has opened two new federal investigations into Harvard University — one scrutinizing whether the institution continues to employ race-based preferences in undergraduate admissions in defiance of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 ruling, and a second probing allegations of antisemitic harassment on its Cambridge campus. The twin actions, reported by Reuters and confirmed by the Department’s own press release, represent a significant escalation in what has become the most sustained confrontation between the federal government and an American university since the desegregation struggles of the mid-twentieth century.
According to the Department of Education’s official statement, the Office for Civil Rights will investigate whether Harvard continues to discriminate against students on the basis of race, color, and national origin in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The department gave Harvard twenty calendar days to comply with outstanding requests for admissions data — including applicant-level information on race, test scores, and grades — or face enforcement actions including referral to the Department of Justice, as reported by the Boston Globe and Business Standard.
“No one — not even Harvard — is above the law,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the announcement, according to the Harvard Crimson. “If Harvard continues to stonewall as we try to verify its basic compliance with antidiscrimination statutes, we will vigorously hold them to account to ensure students’ rights are protected.” The admissions investigation centers on data the department first requested in May 2025, as the Harvard Crimson reported, to verify compliance with Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the Supreme Court decision that outlawed racial preferences in higher education.
The second probe will examine allegations of antisemitism on campus, an issue that has roiled American universities since the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent conflict in Gaza. Internal task forces at Harvard released reports last year finding that both Jewish and Muslim students had experienced bigotry and abuse, according to Reuters. The Education Department stated it would evaluate both complaints and take action to hold Harvard accountable for any illegal policies or actions if discrimination is found.
Harvard responded with measured defiance. Spokesperson Jason Newton told the Boston Globe that the university “is firmly committed to confronting antisemitism” and has taken “intentional steps” to combat it, including increased education and programs to promote civil discourse. Newton stated that Harvard “continues to comply with the law in its admissions practices, including the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin including shared ancestry.” He characterized the new investigations as “the government’s latest retaliatory actions against Harvard for its refusal to surrender our independence and constitutional rights.”
The Monday announcement arrived just three days after the Department of Justice filed a separate civil rights lawsuit against Harvard on March 20, alleging the university failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, as the Associated Press reported. That lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, sought both injunctive relief and the recovery of billions of dollars in federal grants, with the Justice Department writing that it would compel Harvard to comply with federal civil rights law and “recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution.” The government also requested the appointment of an independent outside monitor to oversee the university’s compliance, according to the Harvard Crimson.
The confrontation between Harvard and the federal government has been building for more than a year. What began as an investigation into campus antisemitism escalated into what NBC News described as an all-out feud, with the Trump administration slashing more than $2.6 billion in Harvard’s research funding, ending federal contracts, and attempting to block the university from hosting international students. A federal judge sided with Harvard in September, restoring the funding cuts and calling the antisemitism argument a “smokescreen,” as both NBC News and the Boston Globe reported. That ruling is currently under appeal.
The data dispute at the heart of the admissions investigation presents its own legal complexities. According to the Harvard Crimson, legal experts have warned that satisfying the government’s records request may put Harvard in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act if individual-level data could be used to identify students. Harvard has produced more than two thousand pages of documents in response to federal requests, the Crimson reported, though the government contends the records remain incomplete. Harvard Magazine reported that the university changed its admissions practices after the Supreme Court ruling — admissions team members no longer have access to aggregate or individual race and ethnicity data until after the close of the admissions process, and application readers are instructed not to ask about or consider an applicant’s race.
The investigations are part of a broader federal effort to tighten oversight of American universities. Several institutions have already reached settlements with the administration. Columbia University agreed to pay over two hundred million dollars to resolve similar investigations, according to Reuters, while Brown University agreed to pay fifty million dollars toward state workforce development groups, as WBUR reported. The Trump administration has demanded admissions data from every college in the country via an executive order — a mandate that, according to Business Standard, faces judicial scrutiny this week in federal district court.
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, offered a statement that captured the institution’s complex position. He told the Boston Globe that he hopes the Department of Justice “will zealously protect the rights of Jewish students and of every community here at Harvard,” while also noting it is important to acknowledge the steps Harvard has taken to “fundamentally remake itself over the course of the past year.” The environment on campus regarding antisemitism has improved in recent months, the Globe reported, though concerns persist.
The question before the Republic is not an abstract one. Harvard University received at least six hundred eighty-six million dollars in federal funding in fiscal year 2024, according to the House Oversight Committee. Those are the dollars of American taxpayers, and the federal government bears both the authority and the obligation to ensure that institutions receiving such sums comply with the civil rights laws of the United States. The Supreme Court ruled definitively in 2023 that racial preferences in admissions are unlawful. Antisemitism — the targeting of students for their heritage and faith — is an affront to the foundational American promise of equal treatment under law.
At the same time, the integrity of federal enforcement depends on its fidelity to legal process. A federal judge has already found, in the earlier funding dispute, that the government’s approach raised serious constitutional questions. The manner in which the nation enforces its laws against its most storied institutions will say as much about the character of American governance as the investigations themselves. Harvard now faces a twenty-day deadline that will determine whether this confrontation moves toward resolution or toward yet another round of litigation in what has become the defining contest over the boundaries of federal authority in American higher education.