U.S. college-admissions probe prompts concern

Justice Dept. seeks lawyers to work on race-based policies

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is launching an examination of “race-based discrimination” in college admissions, alarming some civil rights advocates who fear an effort by the Trump administration to roll back affirmative action policies.

In an internal job posting memo obtained by The New York Times, the department’s civil rights division said it was seeking lawyers willing to work on an investigation involving race-based policies in universities.

A Justice Department official said Wednesday that the job posting does not necessarily signal a policy shift toward attacking race-conscious policies in admissions programs.

“Whenever there’s a credible allegation of discrimination on the basis of race, the department will look into it,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a pending investigation.

At her regular briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged that the newspaper had obtained a “leaked internal personnel posting” but declined to comment on it, except to say: “The Department of Justice will always review credible allegations of discrimination on the basis of any race.”

Hours later, the Justice Department issued a statement saying the posting was in response to a complaint filed in 2015 regarding allegations of discrimination against AsianAmericans in an unidentified university’s admissions practices.

In recent years, the Supreme Court has mostly ruled favorably on affirmative action in college admissions, although it has upheld some restrictions at the state level that have significantly chipped away at the practice.

Last year, in a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the use of race as one factor in evaluating college applicants.

The case, Fisher v. University of Texas, centered on Abigail Fisher, a white Texas resident, who filed suit after she was denied admission there. She had argued the university’s consideration of race in admissions discriminated against her because she was white.

In separate cases in 2003 and 1978, the Supreme Court had ruled that race could be among several factors weighed when admitting students.

But despite the court’s repeated endorsement of such diversity efforts, the country remains divided over affirmative action.

Two-thirds of Americans —and 57 percent of African-Americans — don’t believe that race or ethnicity should be considered in college admissions, according to a 2016 Gallup poll.

Some administration officials have histories of challenging such policies. And under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the department already has moved away from some of the civil rights policies of the Obama administration, ending the department’s opposition to a Texas voter identification law, for example.

The job posting at the Justice Department caused concerns among civil rights groups that fear the Trump administration will seek to investigate claims similar to those of Fisher’s.

Derrick Johnson, interim president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement that the Justice Department “seems laser-focused on achieving rights and privileges for ‘just-us,’ totally excluding people of color.”

“Affirmative action was not created as a way for African-Americans, Latinos, or Asian-Americans to get an unfair advantage over their white peers,” Johnson said. “It’s a mechanism to level the playing field and create equal opportunity for people of color following decades of oppression. We should promote and foster efforts to promote diversity on college and university campuses not hinder it.”

Higher education leaders are mindful that for generations, until the civil rights movement, black students were systematically denied admission to leading colleges and universities.

In recent decades, schools have sought to widen access not only to black students but also to other groups that are underrepresented on their campuses, including those who are from low-income families or have parents who did not graduate from college.

Edward Blum, who played a key role in bringing the University of Texas case to the Supreme Court, said he hopes the high court eventually falls into line with public opinion. Blum, president of the antiaffirmative action Project on Fair Representation, has since brought two additional federal cases challenging admissions policies at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina.