Just because the Supreme Court has ruled that institutions of higher learning can no longer discriminate based on race with their admissio...
Just because the Supreme Court has ruled that institutions of higher learning can no longer discriminate based on race with their admissions policies does not necessarily mean that they are planning to actually follow the law. For this reason, America First Legal (AFL), a conservative advocacy group with a commitment to fighting the "radical left," is putting academia on notice that it plans to file lawsuits against any colleges and universities caught discriminating against applicants based on race.
AFL president Stephen Miller, a former White House speech writer and senior advisor to President Donald Trump, is joined by vice president and general counsel Gene Hamilton, who served in the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the Trump administration, in leading the charge against academic institutions that insist on discriminating in violation of the law.
"I write to inform you of the consequences that you and your institution will face if you fail to comply with or attempt to circumvent the Court's ruling," Miller wrote in a letter to John Manning, the dean of Harvard Law School, one of the institutional defendants in one of the legal challenges filed in opposition to affirmative action policies.
"You must immediately announce the termination of all forms of race, national origin, and sex preferences in student admissions, faculty hiring, and law review membership or article selection."
Harvard promises to "comply with the Court's decision"
Miller sent similar letters to the deans of 200 of America's other top law schools, warning them that they, too, need to stop discriminating against applicants based on race or else face a lawsuit from AFL.
"There are those within and outside your institutions who will tell you that you can develop an admissions scheme through pretext or proxy to achieve the same discriminatory outcome," Miller wrote.
"Anyone telling you such a thing is coaching you to engage in illegal conduct in brazen violation of a Supreme Court ruling, lawbreaking in which you would be fully complicit and thus fully liable ... You are hereby warned ... Any such regime – for example, relying on biography over qualifications – to achieve desired racial outcomes is clearly illegal and unconstitutional, and you will face legal repercussions accordingly."
For 20 years, Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, has been trying to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions. Blum was the inspiration for the 2003 Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger, which ultimately failed in that the court ruled it lawful for the University of Michigan Law School to use "race-conscious admissions" as a way to increase "diversity."
Blum is finally seeing his efforts come to fruition in 2023, though, with the Supreme Court's abolition of affirmative action – and just in time for the Independence Day holiday, to boot!
"The Fourth of July celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which is our nation's covenantal document," Blum is quoted as saying to The Wall Street Journal.
"These cases are the beginning of the restoration of the colorblind legal covenant that binds together our multiracial, multiethnic nation."
Harvard University president Lawrence Bacow, along with several other leaders at the school, responded by signing a public letter promising to "certainly comply with the Court's decision."
"We write today to reaffirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences," they added.
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