{"id":16640,"date":"2017-11-22T16:42:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T16:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dnllegalandstyle.com\/?p=16640"},"modified":"2017-11-22T16:42:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T16:42:18","slug":"us-justice-department-threatens-sue-harvard-asian-american-admissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/us-justice-department-threatens-sue-harvard-asian-american-admissions\/","title":{"rendered":"US Justice Department Threatens to sue Harvard over Asian-American Admissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue\u00a0Harvard University<\/a>\u00a0to obtain a trove of records as part of an investigation into the university\u2019s admissions practices following a lawsuit from a group of Asian-American students.<\/p>\n

A Nov. 17 letter from the department gives Harvard until Dec. 1 to turn over a variety of records that Justice officials requested in September, including applications for admission and evaluations of students.<\/p>\n

The department said Harvard has pursued a “strategy of delay” and threatened to sue if it doesn\u2019t meet the department\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n

“We sincerely hope that Harvard will quickly correct its noncompliance and return to a collaborative approach,” the letter said, adding that “Harvard has not yet produced a single document.”<\/p>\n

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The inquiry is related to a federal lawsuit filed by a group of students in 2014 alleging Harvard limits the number of Asian Americans it admits each year. A similar complaint was made to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

A statement from Harvard on Tuesday said it will “certainly comply with its obligations” but also needs to protect confidential records related to students and applicants.<\/p>\n

The university said it has been “seeking to engage the Department of Justice in the best means of doing so.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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M<\/span>any elite schools defend admissions approaches that consider race among other factors as a way to bring a diverse mix of perspectives to campus. Harvard has previously said its practices are legally sound.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court last year upheld race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas but said the ruling didn\u2019t necessarily apply to all other schools.<\/p>\n

Edward Blum, the legal strategist behind the 2014 lawsuit against Harvard, applauded the investigation into what he called “discriminatory admissions policies.”<\/p>\n

“Harvard\u2019s Asian quotas, and the overall racial balancing that follows, have been ignored by our federal agencies for too long,” Blum said in a statement on Tuesday. “This investigation is a welcome development.”<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s early correspondence with Justice officials suggested that the department only wanted to weigh in on the lawsuit, but later letters revealed Harvard is the target of an inquiry.<\/p>\n

A Nov. 7 letter from a Harvard lawyer said it was “highly unusual” for the department to open an investigation into a complaint more than two years after it was filed and while it\u2019s still being decided in court.<\/p>\n

The lawyer, Seth Waxman, demanded that investigators share their case files with Harvard, prove their authority for the inquiry and guarantee confidentiality of Harvard\u2019s records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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I<\/span>n the Nov. 17 response, Justice officials said steps would be taken to shield Harvard\u2019s records from the public, but refused to share their files.<\/p>\n

“For obvious reasons, the Department of Justice generally does not share its civil investigative case files with the targets of its investigations,” the letter said.<\/p>\n

Source: The Telegraph<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue\u00a0Harvard University\u00a0to obtain a trove of records as part of an investigation into the university\u2019s admissions practices following a lawsuit from a group of Asian-American students. A Nov. 17 letter from the department gives Harvard until Dec. 1 to turn over a variety of records that Justice officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":16641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-foreign-jurisdiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t