America First Legal (AFL), a non-profit legal group, has sent letters to 200 law schools across the country threatening a lawsuit if they do not stop considering race in their admissions processes.
AFL President Stephen Miller announced on June 30, “Today, we sent a warning letter to the deans of 200 law schools around America telling them that they must obey the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down illegal racial discrimination and affirmative actions.”
“If they try to violate, circumvent, bypass, subvert, or otherwise program around that ruling, we are going to take them to court. We are going to hold them to account,” he added.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled in two cases against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that their affirmative action policies represented illegal and unconstitutional racial discrimination.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that “students must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race.”
However, almost immediately after the decision was released, many universities, including Harvard, indicated that they would attempt to continue weighing race as a significant factor in their admissions considerations, as reported by The Dallas Express.
For example, Harvard leaders said that they would attempt to use what they perceived to be a loophole in Robert’s decision to continue to judge applicants by race, writing, “The Court also ruled that colleges and universities may consider in admissions decisions ‘an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.’ We will certainly comply with the Court’s decision.”
The statement further explained, “In the weeks and months ahead, drawing on the talent and expertise of our Harvard community, we will determine how to preserve, consistent with the Court’s new precedent, our essential values.”
Gene Hamilton, the vice president and general counsel for America First Legal, explained, “For too long, rather than being beacons of hope and serving as models of equal treatment under the law, law schools have used discriminatory practices that should offend every American.”
“These practices do not just infect and affect legal academia — they then inculcate generations of lawyers who fail to appreciate the meaning of true equality, fail to advance the rule of law, and who fail to speak truth to power with their clients,” he continued. “We are ready to defend the rights of any American harmed by these unlawful practices.”
In AFL’s letter to Harvard’s law school, the legal group said, “It is unlawful for Harvard University Law School to flout the Constitution and the unambiguous command of Title VI by admitting students with lower LSAT scores and academic credentials than those demanded of others based on their race, sex, or national origin.”
“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,” the letter demanded.
Referring to statements like the aforementioned by Harvard, AFL suggested, “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.”
“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,” the letter claimed.
“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,” AFL concluded.
As The Dallas Express reported, many colleges in Texas have also indicated that they would seek to continue considering race during their admissions processes.
Rice University in Houston noted, “We are greatly disappointed that American universities will no longer be allowed to consider an applicant’s race as one of the countless important factors in an admissions application. … The law may change, but Rice’s commitment to diversity will not.”
“Together, we will do everything we can — and everything we must — to maintain and expand the excellence, diversity and vibrancy of the Rice community,” the school concluded.
