On Friday, April 3, 2026, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Boston granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from forcing public colleges and universities in 17 Democratic-led states to complete a new admissions survey. Under an August 2025 presidential memorandum with a 120-day deadline, the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics required colleges to report admissions data disaggregated by race and sex, including test scores, grade-point averages and family income, for applicants, admitted students and enrolled students, retroactively for seven years.
Saylor found the states likely to succeed on their claim that the survey was arbitrary and capricious, writing that it was created in a “rushed and chaotic manner” and that “the 120-day deadline imposed by the President led directly to the failure of NCES ... to engage meaningfully with the institutions.” He also found the government likely has the authority to collect such data and saw no reason to bar its use to investigate potential discrimination.
Saylor wrote that the problems were “compounded” by the administration's effort to dismantle the Education Department. The states said NCES staff had been cut from about 100 to three; the administration said 13 remained and contractors would handle the work. The 17 attorneys general had argued the data demands would invade student privacy and invite unwarranted federal investigations. The administration says the data is needed to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court's 2023 decision ending race-conscious admissions.
Update (October 2, 2026): On April 24, Saylor extended the injunction to higher-education associations, including the Association of American Universities, and private colleges that had intervened in the case, and barred the Education Department from seeking penalties against them for not submitting the data. He again found the department had authority to collect the data but had likely acted unlawfully in its “rushed and chaotic” rollout.
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry dated the ruling April 4; it was issued Friday, April 3. Its title said the judge called the order “an overreach”; he found the government likely has authority to collect the data and faulted only the rushed process, so the title was changed. It said the order covered “colleges in 17 states”; the survey applies nationwide and the injunction covered public colleges in the 17 plaintiff states. The claims that Secretary Linda McMahon fired 90 percent of the Office for Civil Rights and cut half the department's staff are not in the cited reporting and were replaced with the reported NCES staffing dispute.