Attorney General Bonta Sues Trump Administration over “Fishing Expedition” into Colleges and Universities

Press release from the California Attorney General’s Office:

 California Attorney General Rob Bonta today co-led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s burdensome new requirements that colleges and universities submit data linking race to admissions, financial aid, and student performance. While the Trump Administration claims to be seeking this data to assist it in enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, its unprecedented new demands make it all but impossible for colleges and universities to submit usable data for review. Instead, the coalition is concerned that this unreliable data will be used to initiate costly and harmful investigations and enforcement actions against colleges and universities to further partisan political ends.

“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,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This is the same administration, I’ll remind you, that gutted the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, leaving thousands of civil rights complaints and investigations in limbo. 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.”

On August 7, 2025, President Trump directed the U.S. Department of Education to expand the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), an already-required survey, to address alleged concerns about race-conscious admissions practices in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The new survey section would collect a broad range of data on undergraduate and graduate admissions, financial aid, and student outcomes, including data disaggregated by race and sex, on 1) the institutions’ applied, admitted, and enrolled cohorts, disaggregated by admission test score, GPA, family income, Pell Grant eligibility and parental education; 2) average high school grade point average and admission test scores; and 3) the count of students admitted via early action, early decision, or regular admissions. Additionally, the survey would include data about students receiving financial aid, including the average amount, cost of attendance, graduation rates, and graduates’ final cumulative grade point average.

Collecting this data would require colleges and universities to undertake new, costly, and burdensome data collection efforts on an unreasonable timeframe and is unlikely to yield high quality data or achieve the U.S. Department of Education’s stated goals. Attorney General Bonta led a similar coalition in submitting multiple comment letters expressing broad concerns with the proposed overhaul to IPEDs last year. These comments were ignored, and the U.S. Department of Education finalized the policy, turning IPEDS from a reliable tool for methodical statistical reporting to a mechanism for law enforcement and the furthering of partisan policy aims.

In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the data collection demand is contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious. Whereas past changes to IPEDS data collection methods have undergone rigorous advance vetting to ensure they were not overly burdensome and produced targeted, useful information, this dramatic overhaul of IPEDS occurred virtually overnight. Never before has IPEDS sought retroactive data; never before has IPEDS sought such a vast array of data; and never before has the U.S. Department of Education so quickly effected a major change to IPEDS. Now, without court intervention, the Trump Administration’s unrealistic demands leave institutions of higher education in an impossible position: hastily compile this data, knowing it will suffer from inconsistencies that may lead to costly investigations and enforcement action, or fail to comply, and face penalties.

Attorney General Bonta co-leads this lawsuit with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. They are joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.