Seventeen states and several Democratic attorneys general have mounted coordinated legal challenges to the U.S. Department of Education’s new requirement that colleges submit seven years of disaggregated applicant and admissions data. Plaintiffs argue the agency expanded IPEDS unlawfully and imposed onerous compliance costs on institutions. A federal judge then temporarily blocked parts of the administration’s demand for race‑based student application records, saying the government produced “essentially zero evidence” to justify the subpoenas. The litigation creates immediate uncertainty for colleges preparing to submit retroactive datasets and for the Education Department’s plan to monitor compliance after the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions ruling. Expect delays, injunctions and possible narrowed federal requests as courts consider APA challenges and compliance burdens.