WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday voluntarily dropped its lawsuit accusing Yale University of having illegally discriminated against Asian and white applicants in undergraduate admissions.

In a court filing, the Justice Department said federal rules governing court procedures allowed it to dismiss the case because Yale had yet to formally respond or seek dismissal of the complaint. A judge must still sign off on it.

The Justice Department sued Yale in October, arguing the university violated civil rights laws because it “discriminates based on race and national origin” in its undergraduate admissions. The suit was part of a push by former President Donald Trump’s administration against affirmative action in admissions to elite universities. Many selective colleges consider applicants’ race and give an edge to some underrepresented students to promote diversity on campus.

The lawsuit followed a two-year investigation that concluded Yale “rejects scores of Asian American and white applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit,” the Justice Department said. The investigation stemmed from a 2016 complaint against Yale, Brown and Dartmouth — that also found Yale used race as a factor in multiple steps of the admissions process and that Yale “racially balances its classes.”

A similar lawsuit arguing that Harvard goes too far in using race to select students was filed by the DOJ under Trump. In that case, two judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected claims from an anti-affirmative action group that accused the Ivy League University of imposing a “racial penalty” on Asian Americans.

It was not immediately clear whether President Joe Biden’s administration wished to pursue cases against elite universities on its merits.

“Yale is gratified that the U.S. Justice Department has dropped its lawsuit challenging Yale College’s admissions practices,” spokesperson Karen Peart said. “We are also pleased that the Justice Department has withdrawn its notice of violation of Title VI and its notice of noncompliance.”

The Supreme Court has ruled colleges and universities may consider race in admissions decisions but the process must be narrowly tailored with the goal of promoting diversity and should be limited in time. Schools bear the burden of proving racial consideration as legal.

Yale has said its undergraduate admissions comply with high court precedent and takes a comprehensive approach to applicants looking at “the whole person when selecting whom to admit.”

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this article.