A US federal judge on Tuesday cleared Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants in a ruling that was seen as a major victory for supporters of affirmative action in college admissions across the US.
In a closely watched lawsuit that had raised fears about the future of affirmative action, a group called Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) accused the Ivy League college of deliberately — and illegally — holding down the number of Asian-Americans accepted to preserve a certain racial balance on campus.
However, US District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that Harvard’s admissions process is “not perfect,” but passes constitutional muster.
There is “no evidence of any racial animus whatsoever” and no evidence that any admission decision was “negatively affected by Asian-American identity,” she said.
“Race-conscious admissions will always penalize to some extent the groups that are not being advantaged by the process,” but this is justified by the compelling interest in diversity and all the benefits that flow from a diverse college population,” Burroughs wrote.
Her ruling, which came after a three-week trial a year ago, brought temporary relief to other universities that consider race as a way to ensure campus diversity.
However, it also sets the stage for a prolonged battle that some experts predict will go all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Harvard president Lawrence Bacow welcomed the ruling, saying that the consideration of race and many other factors “helps us achieve our goal of creating a diverse student body that enriches the education of every student.”
“Today we reaffirm the importance of diversity — and everything it represents to the world,” he said.
Students for Fair Admissions said it would appeal.
“Students for Fair Admissions is disappointed that the court has upheld Harvard’s discriminatory admissions policies,” Edward Blum, the group’s president, said in a statement. “We believe that the documents, e-mails, data analysis and depositions SFFA presented at trial compellingly revealed Harvard’s systematic discrimination against Asian-American applicants.”
The American Council on Education, which represents dozens of college and university presidents, said the decision is gratifying against a backdrop of “continuing attacks on what remains the settled law of the land in this area.”
“We applaud this ruling and are confident that the nation’s courts, including its highest court, will continue to uphold the vital principle that colleges and universities that choose to do so can consider race as one factor in reviewing applicants to achieve the goal of a talented, diverse incoming class,” council president Ted Mitchell said in a statement.
In the case at Harvard, the plaintiffs argued that Asian-Americans were held to a higher standard in admissions, amounting to an “Asian penalty,” while the school gave preference to black and Hispanic students with poorer grades.
A 2013 internal report at Harvard found that if the school weighed applicants on academics alone, 43 percent of the admitted class would be Asian-American, while in reality it was 19 percent.
Harvard said the report was only meant to be “exploratory” and was based on incomplete data.
Much of the lawsuit centered on a subjective “personal rating” that Harvard assigns to applicants.
The suit argued that Asian-Americans consistently receive lower personal ratings because of racial bias, leading many to be rejected.
The judge sided with Harvard on every count of wrongdoing alleged in the lawsuit. She said differences in personal ratings are “relatively minor” and can be explained by a variety of factors. She said Harvard proved that its use of race is limited and that abandoning it would lead to a sharp decline in diversity.
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