Trump admin sued over mandatory 'fishing expedition' survey forcing schools to turn over 'sensitive student data'
Source: Law & Crime
Mar 11th, 2026, 2:12 pm
The Trump administration is unlawfully trying to force universities and colleges nationwide to release large collections of "sensitive student information," a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday alleged.
In August 2025, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum outlining an effort to track "consideration of race in higher education admissions." That same day, Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced a sweeping change in how institutions of higher education must report student data to the federal government.
For decades, basic statistical data was reported through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). After McMahon's directive, however, schools are required to "report data disaggregated by race and sex relating to applicant pool, admitted cohort, and enrolled cohort at the undergraduate level and for specific graduate and professional programs." In other words, such scholastic data is now granular – and broken down by race, gender, GPA, test scores, income level, and academic program.
In December 2025, those plans went into effect – following a formal administrative process, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) to the underlying IPEDS regime. The plaintiffs, in their 43-page lawsuit, say the new process goes too far and threatens to reveal students' "highly personal information," including their identities in some cases, all in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the federal statute governing the behavior of, and lawsuits against, administrative agencies.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/extra-court-discovery-trump-admin-sued-over-mandatory-fishing-expedition-survey-forcing-schools-to-turn-over-sensitive-student-data-as-states-decry-witch-hunt/
Full headline: 'Extra-court discovery': Trump admin sued over mandatory 'fishing expedition' survey forcing schools to turn over 'sensitive student data' as states decry 'witch hunt'
Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/massachusetts-et-al-v-united-states-department-of-education-et-al-complaint-2026.pdf