Attorney General Phil Weiser sues to stop Education Department's unlawful data demand to colleges and universities

Attorney General Phil Weiser sues to stop Education Department's unlawful data demand to colleges and universities

March 11, 2026 (DENVER) - Attorney General Phil Weiser today joined a coalition of state attorneys general in challenging the Trump administration's demand that higher education institutions provide new data to the U.S. Department of Education supposedly to track compliance with a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibits race from being used as a factor in admissions.

At issue is a newly added component to the Integrated Postsecondary Education System, or IPEDS, a collection of interrelated mandatory surveys administered by the Education Department that gathers data from colleges, universities, and technical and vocational programs participating in federal student financial programs. Since 1986, it has served as a valuable tool for reliable data collection and statistical reporting by universities.

On Aug. 7, 2025, President Trump issued a memo stating that IPEDS would now become a tool to track "consideration of race in higher education" and investigate universities' compliance with the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision from the Supreme Court. Education Secretary Linda McMahon then announced new requirements for institutions demanding they report data via IPEDS broken down by race and sex and retroactively report data from the past seven years. On Dec.18, 2025, following a notice and comment period in which members of the coalition provided comments strongly opposing the new rules, the Trump administration finalized the new requirements. The deadline for institutions to provide the new data is March 18, 2026.

The coalition argues the hasty implementation of the new survey requirements leaves institutions vulnerable to inadvertent errors and unreliable data that could lead to costly penalties and baseless investigations into their practices, and that it jeopardizes student privacy by requesting in-depth information about individual students.

"The new federal data reporting requirements compromise student privacy and threaten sham investigations of colleges and universities. The rush to roll out the new requirements has also left Colorado universities guessing what information they are supposed to provide and facing severe financial penalties if they guess wrong," Attorney General Weiser said. "Under federal law, IPEDS is a statistical information system and not a civil rights enforcement or investigatory tool. The Education Department has gone beyond what the law authorizes IPEDS to collect and for purposes Congress did not authorize. That is why we are taking the Education Department to court."

In the lawsuit, Attorney General Weiser and the coalition argue that the department's rushed implementation of the new data requirements ignores the incredible burden they place on institutions and dramatically increases the possibility of inadvertent reporting errors and unreliable data. Furthermore, the Trump administration has eliminated hundreds of positions within the Education Department, including within the very offices responsible for providing clarity about the requirements to universities.

Moreover, the coalition argues the new data demands jeopardize student privacy and could lead to individuals being easily identified. Many institutions have data protection obligations to their students, which are placed at risk by the administration's new IPEDS demands.

The attorneys general argue the Trump administration's actions are contrary to law, fail to observe the procedure required by law, and are arbitrary and capricious. They argue the implementation of the new data requirements was unlawful and will place an undue burden on colleges and universities.

Joining Attorney General Weiser in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington.

Read the complaint Massachusetts et al. v. U.S. Department of Education (PDF).

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