The Department of Justice is looking for lawyers to investigate a 2015 complaint against Harvard University for anti-Asian American discrimination in their admissions policy, according to a statement from the department on Wednesday.The call to investigate the years-old complaint could signal a shift in two decades of Justice Department support for affirmative action at colleges and a potential avenue to undermine to the use of race in admissions, meant to benefit minority applicants.
In 2015, a coalition of 64 Asian American organizations filed a complaint with the DOJ and Department of Education alleging that Harvard holds Asian applicants to higher standards than other minority applicants. At the time, the Department of Education underneath Obama dismissed the complaint due to ongoing litigation over the same issue—a federal lawsuit pending against Harvard on behalf of two Asian American students.
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