The Trump administration is launching an investigation into Harvard’s admissions practices, looking into whether the university is still considering race when deciding which students to admit.
The Department of Justice probe comes nearly two years after the Supreme Court decided that the consideration of race in admissions is unconstitutional. Harvard was the named plaintiff in the landmark case that upended four decades of legal precedent that had established that colleges could consider race in student admissions.
Now,the Trump administration says it wants to know if the university has been abiding by the ruling. The Department of Justice announced its investigation in a letter to Harvard this week, as first reported by The New York Times.
Harvard said on Friday the school is committed to following the law.
“This investigation is yet another abusive and retaliatory action – the latest of many – that the administration has initiated against Harvard,” Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton told GBH News by email.
Harvard has clashed with the Trump administration in recent months over its hiring and admissions policies, as well as its tax-exempt status. In response, the administration has frozen nearly $3 billion in federal funding — much of which was used for medical and scientific research.
Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill both changed their admissions policies when the Supreme Court outlawed the policy known as affirmative action, a decision that sent ripple effects through top colleges across the country.
Harvard says its admissions office doesn’t have access to information about applicants’ race when their employees and volunteers are reviewing applications.
The Department of Justice is opening its investigation under the False Claims Act of 1863, a law designed to reprimand individuals and organizations that defraud the government.
