Justice Dept. to Take On Affirmative Action in College Admissions

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: August 2, 2017 at 6:39:15 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Justice Dept. to Take On Affirmative Action in College Admissions
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Justice Dept. to Take On Affirmative Action in College Admissions
> By CHARLIE SAVAGE
> Aug 1 2017
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-universities.html>
>
> WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights 
> division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to 
> discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.
>
> The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested in working for 
> a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college 
> and university admissions.”
>
> The announcement suggests that the project will be run out of the division’s front office, where the Trump 
> administration’s political appointees work, rather than its Educational Opportunities Section, which is run by career 
> civil servants and normally handles work involving schools and universities.
>
> The document does not explicitly identify whom the Justice Department considers at risk of discrimination because of 
> affirmative action admissions policies. But the phrasing it uses, “intentional race-based discrimination,” cuts to 
> the heart of programs designed to bring more minority students to university campuses.
>
> Supporters and critics of the project said it was clearly targeting admissions programs that can give members of 
> generally disadvantaged groups, like black and Latino students, an edge over other applicants with comparable or 
> higher test scores.
>
> The project is another sign that the civil rights division is taking on a conservative tilt under President Trump and 
> Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It follows other changes in Justice Department policy on voting rights, gay rights 
> and police reforms.
>
> Roger Clegg, a former top official in the civil rights division during the Reagan administration and the first Bush 
> administration who is now the president of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, called the project a 
> “welcome” and “long overdue” development as the United States becomes increasingly multiracial.
>
> “The civil rights laws were deliberately written to protect everyone from discrimination, and it is frequently the 
> case that not only are whites discriminated against now, but frequently Asian-Americans are as well,” he said.
>
> But Kristen Clarke, the president of the liberal Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, criticized the 
> affirmative action project as “misaligned with the division’s longstanding priorities.” She noted that the civil 
> rights division was “created and launched to deal with the unique problem of discrimination faced by our nation’s 
> most oppressed minority groups,” performing work that often no one else has the resources or expertise to do.
>
> “This is deeply disturbing,” she said. “It would be a dog whistle that could invite a lot of chaos and unnecessarily 
> create hysteria among colleges and universities who may fear that the government may come down on them for their 
> efforts to maintain diversity on their campuses.”
>
> The Justice Department declined to provide more details about its plans or to make the acting head of the civil 
> rights division, John Gore, available for an interview.
>
> “The Department of Justice does not discuss personnel matters, so we’ll decline comment,” said Devin O’Malley, a 
> department spokesman.
>
> The Supreme Court has ruled that the educational benefits that flow from having a diverse student body can justify 
> using race as one factor among many in a “holistic” evaluation, while rejecting blunt racial quotas or race-based 
> point systems. But what that permits in actual practice by universities — public ones as well as private ones that 
> receive federal funding — is often murky.
>
> Mr. Clegg said he would expect the project to focus on investigating complaints the civil rights division received 
> about any university admissions programs.
>
> [snip]
>
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