BALTIMORE, July 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Johns Hopkins University filed suit in federal court Friday in an effort to stop a Trump administration rule change that would severely impact nearly 5,000 international students at the university. The decision to abruptly rescind accommodations for online learning during the COVID pandemic is unlawful and fails to consider the many complexities of meeting our educational mission while also protecting the health of our community.
The suit was filed in the Federal District Court for Washington, D.C., which has significant expertise in handling challenges against unlawful action by the federal government, and it joins other litigation related to the new rule filed by Harvard, MIT and the University of California. Johns Hopkins’ plans for a hybrid, online/in-person model for some of its divisions presents the broadest array of issues for the courts to consider.