(CNN) The Trump administration threw its weight Friday behind a student group that says Harvard University discriminates against Asian-Americans in its admissions process, urging a federal judge Friday not to keep years' worth of admissions records under wraps.

The move by the Justice Department forecasts the emerging fault lines in what could serve as the first major affirmative action case of the Trump administration.

The fight surrounding the secrecy of the Harvard's competitive admissions process stems from a 2014 lawsuit brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit organization that argues race-conscious admissions policies are unconstitutional. The group includes over a dozen students who claim they were rejected from Harvard because the it engages in "racial balancing" by capping the number of Asian-Americans it admits each year.

As part of pre-trial discovery in the case, Students for Fair Admissions obtained a mountain of high school applicant files and detailed information on the inner workings of Harvard's admissions process, much of which it wants to use as evidence as the lawsuit moves ahead. Harvard claims the materials are "highly sensitive" and "highly proprietary," and has asked the judge to shield the records from public view if used in court filings.

The Justice Department has not formally joined the students' current lawsuit in federal court, but has a keen interest in making the admissions data a matter of public record now: the department is embroiled in a parallel case over Harvard's policies as it investigates a similar 2015 complaint filed by a coalition of Asian-American associations.

Read More