A federal judge in Massachusetts has dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to compel Harvard University to produce years of applicant-level admissions records as part of an investigation into whether the school continued to use race-conscious admissions practices after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions.

The ruling is notable less for what it decides on the merits than for what it prevents, at least for now: a federal court-backed effort to force disclosure of highly sensitive admissions data in service of a broader civil rights probe.

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have unsealed an 11-count indictment against Lawrence Mayor Brian A. DePena, alleging he fraudulently obtained more than $1.5 million in COVID-era small-business relief funds and then laundered portions of the proceeds. The case, brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts after a federal grand jury investigation in Boston, immediately stands out as both a pandemic-fraud prosecution and a public-official case with broader corruption implications.

According to prosecutors, the allegedly fraudulently obtained loan proceeds were diverted to campaign-related expenses, tax obligations, and real-estate purposes rather than legitimate business uses.

A Massachusetts federal judge has allowed a multistate challenge against the federal government to continue, concluding at this early stage that the plaintiff states had already shown harm from the challenged federal actions. That ruling is important not because it resolves the merits, but because it clears one of the biggest threshold obstacles in public-law litigation: whether the states can establish a sufficiently concrete injury to stay in court.

According to the reporting, the U.S. Department of Justice will continue litigating the case in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts after the judge determined the states had made the necessary showing of harm.