Yale Admissions Bias Suit by Trump DOJ Dropped Under Biden

(Bloomberg) -- A Trump administration lawsuit accusing Yale University of discriminating against Whites and Asian Americans while favoring Black and Hispanic applicants for admission was dropped by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

The government sued Yale in October, claiming the Ivy League university was violating federal civil rights law by using racial and ethnic data as “the determinative factor” in hundreds of admissions decisions each year, rather than as one of many considerations, as the Supreme Court has allowed. Yale argued it was following years of Supreme Court rulings.

Court records indicate the suit was voluntarily dismissed Wednesday at the government’s request. Yale said the Justice Department also dropped its finding that the school was in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funds.

The move marks a swift shift in priorities for Biden’s Justice Department, signaling its abandonment of the previous administration’s efforts to reverse college diversity efforts. In addition to the Yale case, the Trump administration also joined a similar suit over Harvard University admissions and said it would investigate a diversity initiative announced by Princeton University.

A federal appeals court in Boston said in November that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policies weren’t discriminatory, and the Justice Department cited that ruling in explaining its decision to drop the Yale case.

Harvard Rejection

“The Department has dismissed its lawsuit in light of all available facts, circumstances, and legal developments, including the November 2020 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejecting a challenge to Harvard University’s consideration of race in its admissions practices,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.

“Yale is gratified that the U.S. Justice Department has dropped its lawsuit challenging Yale College’s admissions practices,” university spokeswoman Karen Peart said in an emailed statement. “The Justice Department’s decision in August 2020 to issue the notice of violation unexpectedly and precipitously cut off an exchange of information that Yale looks forward to resuming.”

The Justice Department under Trump last summer initially gave Yale a deadline to agree to stop considering an applicant’s race or national origin in its 2020-2021 admissions cycle. The university said it would never abandon its race-conscious process and was then sued. On Wednesday, the government cited Harvard’s defeat in November of a similar suit alleging it discriminated against Asian-Americans and White applicants in an admissions process that favored Black, Hispanic and other minority students.

In the lawsuit, the Trump administration claimed the university had “intentionally subjected applicants to Yale College to discrimination on the grounds of race and national origin” for 50 years, which resulted in the school imposing unlawful penalties upon “racially-disfavored applicants,” particularly White and Asian-American students.

Broader Campaign

The suit was part of the previous administration’s broader campaign against programs in both the public and private sectors intended to correct historic discrimination against the Black and Hispanic communities. Trump issued an executive order barring federal government agencies and contractors from offering diversity training that he regarded as “un-American” and also launched a government commission aimed at promoting “patriotic” history lessons.

Under Trump, the U.S. Labor Department last year sent letters to Microsoft Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. asking how their efforts to double their ranks of Black leaders complied with laws limiting the consideration of race in employment. The Education Department began a probe of Princeton after the university’s president stated that “racism and the damage it does to people of color nevertheless persist at Princeton as in our society” as part of an announcement of initiatives to diversify the school.

The discrimination suit against Harvard was brought by affirmative-action opponent Edward Blum and his group, Students for Fair Admissions. Last month, U.S. District Judge Charles Haight in Connecticut rejected the group’s bid to join the Yale case, saying the group’s claims mirrored those of the government.

The battle over race-conscious admissions is far from over. After losing the Harvard case in November, Students for Fair Admissions said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the ruling and toss out decades of precedent. The high court, which now has a 6-3 conservative majority, has yet to say if it will take up the appeal. Blum’s group also has similar cases pending against the University of Texas and the University of North Carolina alleging discrimination against Asian-American and White students.

Yukong Zhao, president of Asian American Coalition for Education, which has supported Blum’s efforts, said in a statement that he was “shocked” by the DOJ’s decision. The switch shows the Biden administration “has no intention to eliminate true anti-Asian discrimination at the hands of the American establishment,” he said.

Many of the Trump administration’s efforts fell short in the courts. A federal judge in December blocked the former president’s executive order on diversity training.

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