Sessions backs claims of racial discrimination by Harvard
THE Trump administration has sided with a group suing Harvard University over claims that it treats Asian-american applicants unfairly in a case that could ultimately challenge federal laws over positive discrimination.
The lawsuit, filed in 2014, pits America’s oldest university against a group called Students for Fair Admissions, run by Edward Blum, a financial analyst and conservative activist from Maine who, since the Nineties, has made a name for himself challenging positive discrimination policies.
Opponents of Mr Blum say that he is deliberately setting out to harm African-americans and other groups by removing admissions policies like those at Harvard.
Harvard, the most selective university in the US, admitted only 4.59per cent of applicants this year. Princeton and Columbia admitted 5.5 per cent, while Yale took 6.3per cent of those wishing to attend.
Of those accepted by Harvard, 22.7per cent described themselves as Asian-american, 14.5per cent as African-american, 10.8per cent as Latino and 2.3 per cent as Native American and Native Hawaiian.
Asian-americans make up 5.6 per cent of the US population, according to the latest census.
The justice department ruled yesterday, in a “statement of interest”, that Students for Fair Admissions should be allowed to proceed with their case, scheduled for October. The case, if all appeals are exhausted, could end up at the Supreme Court and potentially be used to overturn the landmark 1978 ruling, which forbade quotas but permitted colleges to use race as one criterion among many to obtain a diverse class.
“No American should be denied admission to school because of their race,” said Jeff Sessions, the attorney general.
Mr Sessions argued that the school’s use of a “personal rating”, which includes subjective factors such as being a “good person” or “likeability”, may be biased against Asian-americans.
Mr Sessions said the university admitted that it scores Asian-american applicants lower on personal rating than other students, and argued that Harvard admissions officers monitor and manipulate the racial make-up of incoming classes.
“The Supreme Court has called such attempts to ‘racially balance’ the makeup of a student body ‘patently unconstitutional’,” he said.
Mr Blum celebrated the news, stating: “We look forward to having the gravely troubling evidence that Harvard continues to keep redacted disclosed to the American public in the near future.”
Harvard said it was “deeply disappointed” but not surprised “given the highly irregular investigation the DOJ has engaged in thus far”.
“Harvard does not discriminate against applicants from any group, and will continue to vigorously defend the legal right of every college and university to consider race as one factor among many in college admissions, which the Supreme Court has consistently upheld for more than 40 years,” the university said in a statement.
“Colleges and universities must have the freedom and flexibility to create the diverse communities that are vital to the learning experience of every student.”