Harvard Defeats Suit Seeking to Bar Race-Conscious Admission

Harvard University defeated an anti-affirmative action group’s lawsuit to stop the school from using race as a factor in admissions, in a ruling that’s likely to be challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the nation’s oldest college doesn’t discriminate against Asian-Americans, as the suit claimed, and that its consideration of race as one criterion among many in its admissions decisions is lawful. The suit, brought in 2014 by Students for Fair Admissions, claimed that Harvard illicitly engaged in “racial balancing” by artificially limiting Asian-Americans’ numbers and favoring African-American, Latino and white applicants.

“The court will not dismantle a very fine admissions program that passes constitutional muster, solely because it could do better,” U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said in a 130-page ruling.

The decision is almost certain to be appealed. For decades, the Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action in student selection, but the high court has grown more conservative in recent years and in a new review may look less favorably upon the practice.