The Justice Department dropped a case against Yale University that accused the Ivy League school of discriminating against white and Asian applicants in its admissions process.
The Biden administration decision was announced in a filing in federal district court in Connecticut. “The United States accordingly notices voluntary dismissal of this action, without prejudice,” said the filing submitted by Gregory Friel, the deputy assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division — marking a significant reversal from just a few months ago under the Trump administration.
The Justice Department announced a lawsuit against Yale University for alleged discrimination on the basis of race and national origin in October, arguing that the discriminatory admissions practices imposed “undue and unlawful penalties on racially-disfavored applicants, including in particular most Asian and White applicants.” Yale denied the allegations of discrimination.
The Trump Justice Department said a multi-year investigation “found Yale discriminates based on race and national origin in its undergraduate admissions process, and that race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year.” It specifically alleged that for the vast majority of applicants, potential Asian American and white students “have only one-eighth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials” and that “Yale rejects scores of Asian American and White applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit.”
The Biden Justice Department recently signed an executive order declaring that “affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”
The Justice Department’s 32-page lawsuit in October argued that “for at least 50 years, Defendant Yale University has intentionally subjected applicants to Yale College to discrimination on the grounds of race and national origin” and “for the last few decades, Yale’s oversized, standardless, intentional use of race has subjected domestic, non-transfer applicants to Yale College to discrimination on the ground of race.” DOJ investigators alleged that Yale’s practices violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
“Illegal race discrimination by colleges and universities must end,” Eric Dreiband, the Trump DOJ’s assistant attorney general for its Civil Rights Division, said in a lengthy statement accompanying the lawsuit last year. “This nation’s highest ideals include the notion that we are all equal under the law. For centuries, people from all over the world have learned of this ideal, left their ancestral homes, and come to the United States hoping that this country would live up to its ideals and that they and their families could enjoy equal opportunity and pursue the American dream. Countless Americans have pursued their dreams through higher education, and they continue to do so. All persons who apply for admission to colleges and universities should expect and know that they will be judged by their character, talents, and achievements and not the color of their skin. To do otherwise is to permit our institutions to foster stereotypes, bitterness, and division.”
Yale University President Peter Salovey pushed back against DOJ’s claims in October, saying, “Our admissions practices are completely fair and lawful. Yale’s admissions policies will not change as a result of the filing of this baseless lawsuit. We look forward to defending these policies in court.”
In September 2018, when the Justice Department initiated its inquiry, Salovey wrote an open letter to the Yale community “to state unequivocally that Yale does not discriminate in admissions against Asian Americans or any other racial or ethnic group,” and he promised to defend Yale’s admissions process.
A federal appeals court ruled in favor of Harvard University in a similar case in November, upholding a 2019 district court ruling that found the school’s affirmative action admissions policies did not violate national civil rights laws, despite claims and testimony that the school’s policies amounted to willful discrimination against Asian American applicants. The group Students for Fair Admissions brought a lawsuit against Harvard in 2014, alleging that the school’s leaders “have employed and are employing racially and ethnically discriminatory policies and procedures” in their admissions. The Trump DOJ filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the lawsuit, but that will also likely be reversed.
It is possible the Harvard case could soon head for the Supreme Court.
