This ruling is likely to be pushed up the Federal Court ladder as conservatives push to get rid of any vestiges of ‘affirmative actions’ in education…
A federal judge in a ruling released Tuesday sided with Harvard University in a Trump administration-backed challenge to the elite school’s use of race in admissions — the first decision in a case widely believed to become the Supreme Court’s next opening to ban affirmative action.
Led by longtime anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, the lawsuit against Harvard alleges the Ivy League school’s consideration of race discriminates against Asian American applicants — claims that drew the support of the Justice Department.
But Judge Allison Burroughs disagreed in her 130-page ruling, saying Harvard’s admissions policy does not discriminate against Asian American applicants and meets the strict scrutiny standard that the Supreme Court has set for using racial preferences in admissions.
While the university’s use of race in admissions decisions was constitutional, Burroughs ruled, she said it was still “not perfect.”
“The process would likely benefit from conducting implicit bias trainings for admissions officers, maintaining clear guidelines on the use of race in the admissions process, which were developed during this litigation, and monitoring and making admissions officers aware of any significant race-related statistical disparities in the rating process,” Burroughs wrote. “That being said, the Court will not dismantle a very fine admissions program that passes constitutional muster, solely because it could do better.”
The case is unlikely to end here, however. Students for Fair Admissions, Blum’s group, is almost certain to appeal and the case is widely expected to wind up before the Supreme Court, which has upheld affirmative action in college admissions multiple times — but now may be less likely to green-light the practice again with a more conservative majority created by President Donald Trump….
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