California sues Trump over policy requiring colleges to post race data, test scores.

California and 16 Democratic states are suing to challenge the Trump administration’s policy that requires institutions of higher education, including the campuses of the University of California and California State University, to collect data — including students’ grade point averages — to prove they do not illegally consider race in admissions.

Attorney General Rob Bonta is one of the federal attorneys who filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the Department of Education’s rule that requires colleges to post “the race and gender of college applicants, accepting students and enrolled students.” Bonta called the requirement a “fishing expedition” that “requires an unprecedented amount of information from our colleges and universities under the guise of enforcing human rights law.”

“This is the same administration, I will remind you, that removed the US Department of Education’s Office of Human Rights, leaving behind thousands of human rights complaints and investigations,” Bonta said in a statement. “This latest fraudulent demand threatens to turn a trusted tool into a party bludgeon. California is committed to following the law — and we will go to court to make sure the Trump Administration does the same.”

The policy, announced in August, requires schools to submit data disaggregated by gender, race, grade point averages and test scores for applicants, accepted students and enrolled students by March 18.

The Trump administration is asking for seven years of data and says it wants schools to prove they don’t illegally consider race as a factor in admissions — a practice made national after a 2023 Supreme Court case involving Harvard. In that case, the justices said colleges can still consider how race has shaped students’ lives if applicants share that information in their admissions essays.

Opponents of the California and Democratic lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court, say in their complaint that the government is trying to turn the National Center for Education Statistics into “a vehicle for law enforcement and furthering partisan policy goals.”

The Trump administration has accused many higher education institutions, including the UC system, of violating the law by using race in admissions and discriminating against white and Asian American students. This year, it sued UCLA in federal court, alleging that the David Geffen School of Medicine illegally engaged in admissions practices. UC and UCLA said they are following California state law, which has banned racial profiling as part of admissions since 1997.

President Trump ordered the new policy last summer after he raised concerns that colleges and universities were using personal statements and other proxies to determine race, which he considered illegal discrimination.

Ellen Keast, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, defended the collection of information.

“American taxpayers invest more than $100 billion in higher education each year and deserve transparency in how their dollars are spent,” Keast said in a statement. “The Department’s efforts will expand the existing transparency tool to show how universities consider considerations in recruiting students.

The new policy is similar to parts of recent settlement agreements the government negotiated with Brown University and Columbia University, to restore their federal research funding. Universities have agreed to provide government data on race, grade point average and standardized test scores for applicants, accepted students and enrolled students. The schools have also agreed to be audited by the government and release admission statistics to the public.

The government made a similar request to UC in August when it proposed a $1.2-billion fine to settle allegations of human rights violations at UCLA after cutting more than half a billion dollars in funding for health, science, and energy research.

UC President James B. Milliken said the university will not pay the fine but is open to negotiations with the Trump administration. No agreement has been reached, although faculty and union-led lawsuits have led to the restoration of research funding and tighter restrictions on the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape UC policies and culture by threatening funding cuts.

The Trump administration’s August memo on the admissions race directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to require colleges to report more information “to provide adequate transparency on admissions” to the National Center for Education Statistics. After a public comment period — during which California and other Democratic-led states sent notices opposing the law — the Department of Education finalized the reporting requirement on Dec. 18.

If colleges fail to submit timely, complete and accurate data, McMahon can take action under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which defines the requirements for colleges that receive federal financial aid for students, according to the memo.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, who co-led the case with Bonta, said in a statement that “there is no way for institutions to submit accurate information during the federal government’s busy and unwarranted time, and it is unfair for schools to be threatened with fines, possible loss of funds, and unfounded investigations if they do not request the administration.”

The state uses the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS, to collect information from thousands of state-funded colleges and universities. The coalition also says the collection of new data needs to compromise student privacy.

“Many institutions have data protection obligations for their students, which are jeopardized by the new IPEDS administrative demands for in-depth information about each student,” the plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.

Casey writes for the Associated Press.