Admission policies: Asian-Americans get US support in Harvard suit

The US government backed a lawsuit challenging Harvard University’s admissions processes as biased against Asian-Americans, as the case attacking affirmative action in higher education moves closer to a trial.

The Justice Department filed a 37-page brief Thursday, saying Harvard has violated the law by using a subjective personal rating system. The US also said the college has failed to demonstrate that its use of race as a factor in admissions decisions is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest.

“Harvard acknowledges that it voluntarily uses race as a factor in deciding whether to offer certain young adults admission to, and the substantial educational benefits of, its elite institution,” the Justice Department said in its brief. “Harvard seeks to justify this use of race to award educational opportunities as necessary to its pursuit of the ‘educational benefits of diversity.’ But Harvard has failed to carry its demanding burden to show that its use of race does not inflict unlawful racial discrimination on Asian Americans.”

The US filing comes as a federal judge in Massachusetts is weighing requests by Harvard and the plaintiffs’ group to rule in their favor, even before the start of the trial on October 15. The case could eventually make its way to the US Supreme Court and serve as a means to rewrite federal law on affirmative action in university admissions. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sided with Harvard Thursday in advocating for racial diversity as part of determining who gets in.

On Monday, Harvard argued in a filing that the lawsuit should be dismissed because their case is based on “invective, mis-characterizations and in some cases outright misrepresentations.”

The Ivy League school also said that the judge should rule in Harvard’s favour because the suit is nothing but a “litigation vehicle” advancing the ideological objectives of Edward Blum, the leader of the plaintiffs’ group — Students for Fair Admissions — that filed the case. 

A Harvard University spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department says in its so-called Statement of Interest that Harvard has no meaningful criteria to guide its voluntary use of race in admissions decisions, that the evidence shows Harvard considers race in compiling a “vague personal rating that harms Asian-American applicants,” and that Harvard engages in illegal racial balancing.

The U.S. relies on documents that has been turned over to the plaintiffs in pre-trial document sharing.

Consider Alternatives

“Harvard has been using race to make admissions decisions for more than 45 years -- but substantial record evidence demonstrates that, even now, it has never engaged in ‘serious, good faith consideration of workable race-neutral alternatives,’” the U.S. said.

The U.S. focused on Harvard’s use of a “personal rating” for applicants as potentially “biased against Asian Americans” because it uses subjective factors such as “likability” and “human qualities.” It says the school admits that on average it scores Asian-American applicants lower on this personal rating than applicants of other races.

“No American should be denied admission to school because of their race,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “Harvard has a responsibility to conduct its admissions policy without racial discrimination by using meaningful admissions criteria that meet lawful requirements.”

The filing isn’t the Justice Department’s first in the case. In April, it argued that documents filed under seal by Harvard should be made public, noting that the university receives millions of dollars in public funds annually.

For the academic year now getting started, Harvard admitted 4.59 per cent of the applicants to its class of 2022. Women represented 50.1 per cent of those accepted; African-Americans 15.5 per cent; Latinos 12.2 per cent; and Native Americans 2 per cent, according to the Harvard Crimson. Asian-Americans made up a record 22.7 per cent of the class.