A federal court blocked the U.S. Education Department from enforcing a new college data survey for an additional set of institutions as a lawsuit over the rule proceeds. On Friday, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor issued a preliminary injunction covering members of six higher-education associations and six private nonprofit colleges. The order pauses a deadline requiring selective-admissions four-year colleges to submit detailed applicant and enrollee data broken down by race and sex, including GPA, standardized test scores, and family income, both for 2025-26 and the prior six years. The ruling expands an earlier injunction that barred enforcement for public colleges in 17 largely Democrat-controlled states. The latest order covers roughly 178 additional colleges, including Harvard, Columbia, Ohio State, and Texas A&M. Saylor cited the burden of completing the survey and an “imminent” risk of fines and loss of federal funding tied to inadequate submissions. The government argued that some institutions had already submitted partial or complete data, but the court disagreed. It also blocked the Education Department from seeking civil penalties or pursuing other enforcement actions against covered colleges for failing to meet the deadline.