Is Yale Defying the Law on Colorblind Admissions?

The Justice Department’s investigation of the Yale School of Medicine suggests the opening of a new phase in the federal campaign to reform higher education. The probe examines the Ivy League university’s compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023 barring race-based admissions. Last week the DOJ returned with its verdict: Yale’s medical school is “intentionally” selecting applicants “based on their race.” In other words — flouting the law. The investigation into Yale’s admission practices vindicates a prediction made by Representative Elise Stefanik at a Manhattan Institute event in April. She reckoned that enforcement of the affirmative action ruling would be “the next shoe to drop.” The congresswoman said that Ivy League attempts to “circumvent” a high court ruling would amount to a serious legal issue. She asked: “Are schools abiding by U.S. law?”If the DOJ’s probe is any guide, Ms. Stefanik’s concerns seem well-placed. Justice reports that after the ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Yale drove its tactics underground. “Yale’s internal policies, publicly distributed literature, and email correspondence of its leadership, consistently and emphatically demonstrate Yale’s intent to use race in admissions,” said the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon. The DOJ pointed, too, to Yale’s own admissions data. Analyzing the grades and test scores of medical students admitted after the ruling, the DOJ found that black and Hispanic students are significantly more likely to be admitted than white and Asian-American students with equivalent credentials. The department reported that a black applicant is up to 29 times more likely to get an interview than an equally strong Asian applicant.Taken together, the data provide “statistical evidence of intentional discrimination,” the DOJ said, which places Yale in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions. That case was brought by a group of predominantly Asian-American students who challenged Harvard’s undergraduate admissions policies with the help of legal strategist Edward Blum. The Court sided with the plaintiffs six to three, holding that Harvard’s race conscious admissions program, while boosting black enrollment, discriminated against Asian-American applicants and violated their civil rights. Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, stressed that the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” requires that “an individual’s race may never be used against him in the admissions process.” Faced with the evidence, the DOJ called on Yale to enter a voluntary resolution agreement to return the school to good standing with the law. The university said it would “carefully review” the DOJ’s letter, while insisting the medical school was “confident in the rigorous admissions process we follow” and that its incoming students “demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and personal commitment.” The DOJ’s Yale probe comes amid a broader concern that the Supreme Court’s ruling against race-based admissions is being flouted. Reason’s Josh Blackman, pointing to a recent Manhattan Institute report, finds that “the rates of racial minorities admitted to elite colleges has remained roughly the same” in the aftermath of Students for Fair Admissions. He reckons the “numbers suggest that universities developed clever ways to evade” the ruling.Yet the Nine, Mr. Blackman says, declined in 2024 to hear a dispute questioning “an affirmative action policy at an elite public school that was evading” the precedent calling for race-neutral admissions. That makes it all the more important for the DOJ to enforce the law. Quoth Ms. Dhillon: “This Department will continue to shed light on these illegal practices, and demand that institutions of higher education comply with federal law.”

Is Yale Defying the Law on Colorblind Admissions?

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