DOJ Sues Yale University

Back in August, the United States Department of Justice accused Yale University of discriminating against white and Asian American applicants. The DOJ, led by Attorney General William Barr, drew this conclusion after a two year investigation and let’s just say their conclusion was no surprise to us. Why’s that? The Trump administration has been hellbent on ending the practice of Affirmative Action — or the consideration of race in the college admissions process. The DOJ’s first major salvo in the fight was supporting the group known as Students for Fair Admissions in their lawsuit against Harvard University. The group accused Harvard of discriminating against Asian American applicants. Harvard won. The case is now being appealed. But the DOJ isn’t done just yet. So what’d AG Barr and his Justice Department do today?

DOJ Sues Yale for Allegedly Violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964

The DOJ filed suit against Yale University. As Anemona Hartocollis reports for The New York Times in a piece entitled “Justice Dept. Sues Yale, Citing Illegal Race Discrimination,” “The Justice Department sued Yale University on Thursday on the grounds that the prestigious university discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants during its rigorous admission process. A multiyear investigation, the Justice Department said, found that white and Asian-American applicants were one-eighth to one-fourth as likely to be admitted as African-American applicants with the same academic credentials…According to the Justice Department, the discriminatory practices constitute a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says that programs receiving taxpayer funding cannot discriminate.”

Ivy Coach Stands with Yale

So what do we think about the DOJ’s latest attack on Affirmative Action? Look, all highly selective colleges, including Yale, discriminate against Asian American applicants. It’s not right. It’s not fair. And it should end. But Affirmative Action is not to blame for the discrimination that these applicants face in admissions. The admission of African American and Latinx students, low-income and first-generation college students is not the reason why Asian Americans face unjust discrimination in admissions any more so than is the practice of legacy admission or offering preferential treatment to recruited athletes who are disproportionately white. And let’s be real. This DOJ doesn’t care about Asian Americans. This DOJ cares about ending Affirmative Action and they’re using Asian Americans as their pawns to achieve this end. But, as our loyal readers know, we’ve got a crystal ball at Ivy Coach. And our crystal ball hereby predicts that this case won’t go very far — particularly if there’s a change in leadership atop the DOJ under a new presidential administration.