The Justice Department has opened an an investigation into Harvard University’s affirmative action program.
The Justice Department confirmed the investigation in a letter to American Oversight dated Oct. 4 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The group is a government watchdog nonprofit that teamed up with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law seeking records about Justice Department investigations into admissions practices at both Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Justice Department said it had no records about an investigation into UNC, but did for Harvard.
In August, the Justice Department said it was looking into a complaint that accused Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants.
“This is further proof that Attorney General Sessions and the Trump administration will continue to invoke civil rights only to further their own political agenda — not provide equal protections for all Americans. It speaks volumes that Jeff Sessions’s Justice Department is prioritizing attacking affirmative action at a time when white nationalists are marching openly in the streets,” American Oversight executive director Austin Evers said in a statement.
The Justice Department declined to comment for this story.
