Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Audrey Anderson shared her insight for an article in Bloomberg following the Justice Department’s (DOJ) letter informing Yale University it has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act due to the way the university uses race in its admission process. The Justice Department has given Yale a September 15 deadline for the school to stop considering applicants’ race. If Yale does not comply and continues considering race in its admissions decisions, DOJ could sue the university.
Audrey suggested a lawsuit could be the Trump administration’s way of pushing the issue back to the Supreme Court now that the bench has more Trump appointees. “They’re trying to make affirmative action go away, because they believe that’s the way the Constitution should be read,” she said.
This latest push from the administration follows another case wherein an activist group opposed to affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions, has sued Harvard University. If there are conflicting federal rulings in the Harvard case and any future cases, such as one brought against Yale, the matter could be teed up for review by the Supreme Court. “Students for Fair Admissions is being strategic, and the Department of Justice is now helping them,” Audrey said.
The full article, “Yale Threat Gives Trump a New Wedge Against Affirmative Action,” was published by Bloomberg News on August 21 and is available online. To read Audrey’s detailed analysis of the Yale case and other affirmative action cases against higher education institutions, click here.