Rerun of Harvard Case at Yale

Blog readers will recall the Harvard case in which it was charged Harvard's admission practices disfavored Asians.* The plaintiffs lost in lower court and the case is now on appeal supported by the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Something similar seems now to be happening at Yale, although it appears that the Justice Dept. is the lead actor rather than a private plaintiff. Of course, if the upcoming election produces a Biden administration, the Department would likely withdraw the charge. However, if the Trump administration continues and if California voters repeal Prop 209 - the anti-affirmative action initiative of the mid-1990s - UC's admission practices might also be challenged.

From the NY Times:

The Justice Department on Thursday accused Yale University of violating federal civil rights law by discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants, an escalation of the Trump administration’s moves against race-based admissions policies at elite universities.

The charge, coming after a two-year investigation, is the administration’s second confrontation with an Ivy League school; two years ago, it publicly backed Asian-American students who accused Harvard in a lawsuit of systematically discriminating against them.

The department’s finding could have far-reaching consequences for the ongoing legal challenges to affirmative action, which are expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/yale-discrimination.html

Note that even if Trump is replaced by Biden, and if 209 is repealed by voters in November (as the Regents now would prefer), a private lawsuit could be filed against UC as in the Harvard case and ultimately make its way to the now-conservative U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, a Biden Dept. of Justice might support UC's practices.

As in the case of just about everything else nowadays, we will see.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/02/update-on-harvard-admissions.html