A federal judge blocked the Education Department from enforcing deadlines for a new race- and sex-disaggregated student-data survey against six higher education associations and private nonprofit colleges, expanding an earlier injunction that had covered public colleges in 17 largely Democratic states. In the Friday order, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor granted a preliminary injunction covering roughly 178 additional colleges, including institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, Ohio State, and Texas A&M. The survey would require selective-admissions colleges to submit detailed data on applicants and enrollees for 2025–26 and the prior six years, including GPA, standardized test scores, and family income. Saylor said the institutions faced harm from both the administrative burden of completing the survey and an “imminent, non-speculative risk” of fines and federal funding loss over inadequate submissions. The ruling also paused enforcement actions beyond the deadline, preventing the department from seeking civil penalties tied to missed or partial submissions while the lawsuit proceeds. The case heightens uncertainty for enrollment leaders who had already begun submitting partial or complete data and now must reassess compliance timelines, documentation readiness, and risk management across admissions and institutional research workflows.