California, other states sue over Trump demand for college data

Officials challenge policy requiring proof that race isn't illegally a factor in admissions.

- JAWEED KALEEM AND MICHAEL CASEY

THIS YEAR the U.S. government sued UCLA, alleging its medical school illegally uses affirmative action.

California and 16 other Democratic states are suing to challenge a Trump administration policy requiring higher education institutions, including University of California and California State University campuses, to collect data — including student grade-point averages — to prove they don't illegally consider race in admissions.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta is among the state attorneys general who filed the suit Wednesday against a Department of Education rule that asks colleges to submit "the race and sex of colleges' applicants, admitted students and enrolled students." Bonta called the requirement a "fishing expedition" that is "demanding unprecedented amounts of data from our colleges and universities under the guise of enforcing civil rights law."

"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," Bonta said in a statement. "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."

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