Latest news with #StudentsForFairAdmissions
Reuters
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Tennessee sues US Education Department over grants for Hispanic-serving colleges
June 11 (Reuters) - Tennessee's Republican attorney general and the group behind the U.S. Supreme Court's decision barring race-conscious college admissions filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging a U.S. Department of Education program that awards grants to universities if Hispanics comprise 25% or more of their student bodies. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum, argued in a lawsuit, opens new tab filed in federal court in Knoxville that Congress unconstitutionally exceeded its authority by creating a program that discriminates on the basis of race. "A federal grant system that openly discriminates against students based on ethnicity isn't just wrong and un-American—it's unconstitutional,' Skrmetti said in a statement. The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group's arguments would appear to align with the efforts by Republican President Donald Trump's administration to eliminate programs it views as furthering the objectives of diversity, equity and inclusion, which the White House calls discriminatory. The lawsuit takes aim at the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, which Congress created as part of Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act with the goal of supporting colleges and universities that serve a significant percentage of Hispanic students. In the 2024 fiscal year, Congress appropriated at least $228.9 million for one sub-program, the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, the complaint noted. The lawsuit said colleges awarded grants can use the millions of dollars they receive to fund new lab equipment and STEM tutoring for low-income students, among other purposes. But the lawsuit said that while the state of Tennessee operates many colleges and universities that serve Hispanic students, its schools are ineligible for funding "because they don't have the right mix of ethnicities on campus." The lawsuit argues that the program as currently constituted was not a valid exercise of Congress' spending power and that its discriminatory criteria runs afoul of the equal-protection principle included in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit cites the 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2023 decision rejecting race-conscious policies long used by American colleges and universities to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and other minority students on American campuses in cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Those cases were filed by Students for Fair Admissions, a non-profit founded by Blum, who has pursued a series of cases since then challenging programs designed to bolster racial diversity in government and Corporate America. The case is State of Tennessee v. U.S. Department of Education, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, No. 3:25-cv-270. For the plaintiffs: Thomas McCarthy and Cameron Norris of Consovoy McCarthy; Adam Mortara of Lawfair; and Aaron Bernard of the Tennessee Office of the Attorney General
Wall Street Journal
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Tennessee Sues to End Program Funding Colleges With High Hispanic Enrollment
A lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee on Wednesday seeks to end a program designed to funnel tens of millions of dollars to colleges and universities with a large percentage of Hispanic students, charging it is racist and unconstitutional. The suit was filed by the state of Tennessee and advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions against the U.S. Department of Education. In 2023, the advocates' suit against Harvard University led to the Supreme Court ruling it unconstitutional to consider race in university admissions.
Wall Street Journal
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
UCLA Medical School and Racial Bias
Racial preferences in university admissions ended in 2023, or did they? A lawsuit in federal court against the University of California Geffen Medical School is worth watching as an example of how schools are complying with the Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Late last week the groups Students for Fair Admissions and Do No Harm sued UCLA Geffen for bias in admissions. The class-action lawsuit, which is brought on behalf of students denied admission since 2020, says UCLA used different academic standards for applicants of different races to achieve racially balanced student classes.
Fox News
08-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
UCLA medical school hit with class-action lawsuit for allegedly still using race-based admissions process
The University of California, Los Angeles, medical school was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Thursday for reportedly still employing a race-based admissions process despite a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that race-based programs for college admissions are unconstitutional, Fox News Digital has learned. "UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine has continually treated the Students for Fair Admissions ruling as a recommendation, rather than a binding law handed down by the highest court in the land," Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chair of Do No Harm, told Fox News Digital. "Do No Harm is fighting for all the students who have been racially discriminated against by UCLA under the guise of political progress. All medical schools must abide by the law of the land and prioritize merit, not immutable characteristics, in admissions." Do No Harm, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting against "radical progressive ideology" in the health industry, and nonprofit legal advocacy organization Students for Fair Admissions filed the class-action lawsuit Thursday afternoon on behalf of applicants who allegedly faced "intentional discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity in the admissions process" at UCLA's medical school, according to the lawsuit. "The numbers show that UCLA is engaged in intentional racial balancing. Between 2020 and 2023, the percentage of white and Asian applicants to Geffen was consistently around 73% of the total applicant pool. Yet, the percentage of matriculants to Geffen who are white and Asian plummeted: 65.7% in 2020, 57.1% in 2021, 57.8% in 2022, and 53.7% in 2023," the lawsuit alleges. UCLA's medical school is highly competitive with an acceptance rate of about 3.3%, according to U.S. News and World Report's college rankings. The suit names a bevy of defendants, ranging from the medical school to the governing board of the University of California's college system to the associate dean of admissions at the medical school. Fox News Digital reached out to UCLA and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA on Thursday afternoon for comment on the lawsuit but did not immediately receive replies. The suit alleges that the medical school's admissions process violates the Supreme Court's ruling in the 2023 case, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The nation's highest court ruled that it is unconstitutional to use race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions processes as it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. President Donald Trump additionally signed an executive order on Jan. 21, one day after his inauguration, that restored "merit-based opportunity" and charged federal agencies with enforcing civil rights laws and "combat" DEI practices. The lawsuit alleges that whistleblowers "with first-hand knowledge" of the school's dean of admissions rolled out an admissions process plan that requires Geffen "applicants to submit responses that are intended to allow the Committee to glean the applicant's race, which the medical school later confirms via interviews." The admission committee, according to the suit, additionally "routinely and openly discuss race (and racial proxies) and use race as a factor to make admission decisions." The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is already facing investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights over allegations it discriminates against applicants on the basis of race, color or national origin. "This investigation reflects the Administration's commitment to honor the hard work, excellence, and individual achievement of all students in the pipeline for the medical profession – not just those of particular racial backgrounds," Anthony Archeval, acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, said in a press release in March announcing the investigation. The HHS investigation was sparked by multiple whistleblowers in the admissions office claiming that the school set lower standards for Black and Latino applicants compared to White and Asian counterparts, the Washington Free Beacon reported this month.
