The Justice Department filed suit alleging Harvard has withheld documents needed to determine whether its admissions practices unlawfully consider race, the agency said Friday. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon framed the action as an effort to force compliance with a civil-rights inquiry; the filing does not itself accuse Harvard of discrimination. Harvard denied wrongdoing and said it has cooperated with the inquiry. The suit escalates a year‑long federal campaign that has included threats to cut research dollars and other enforcement moves. The case signals the administration’s willingness to use litigation to extract applicant‑level data and could prompt wider scrutiny of how selective institutions document race in admissions. Legal observers say the litigation may produce new disclosure precedents for other universities under investigation.