In the wake of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard (deeming them violations of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause), advocacy groups introduced a civil-rights complaint today against Harvard over legacy admissions, claiming that the practice discriminates against applicants of color. Filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights by lawyers representing three Massachusetts-based Black and Latino community organizations, the complaint requests that the federal government end legacy considerations because they provide donors and children of alumni with advantages, and thereby violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Cited in the complaint was a National Bureau of Economic Research analysis which concluded that 70 percent of legacy applicants were white versus 40 percent of non-white applicants, and that legacy applicants’ chances for admission were more than five times higher than their non-legacy peers. Referencing last week’s controversial majority ruling against race-based considerations, the complaint argued, “As the Supreme Court has recently stated: ‘A benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter.’” Harvard declined to comment.
