Harvard Probed by US Agencies for Law Review Discrimination (3)

The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services announced investigations into Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review citing reports of race-based discrimination, broadening the government’s assault on the oldest and richest US university.

“Harvard Law Review’s article selection process appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race, employing a spoils system in which the race of the legal scholar is as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement on Monday.

The investigation comes after the Washington Free Beacon published an article last Friday detailing what it described as “pervasive race discrimination at the nation’s top law journal.” The publication, which played a key role highlighting allegations of plagiarism by Harvard’s former president Claudine Gay before her ouster, said documents it reviewed showed how race influenced editors and articles included in the prestigious journal, including after the Supreme Court banned race-based admissions almost two years ago.

The report said that since 2018, only one white author was selected to write the forward to the review’s Supreme Court issue, a sharp reversal from prior decades. It also highlighted the role diversity, equity and inclusion values plays in the selection of articles.

“Harvard Law School is committed to ensuring that the programs and activities it oversees are in compliance with all applicable laws and to investigating any credibly alleged violations,” a spokesman said in a statement, adding that Harvard Law Review is a student-run organization that’s “legally independent from the law school.”

The probe opens another front for the government to challenge Harvard after initially accusing the school of tolerating antisemitism — a fight that’s escalated to the point where Harvard is suing the government over funding and the White House is suggesting it could revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.

The Trump administration has withheld more than $2.2 billion of federal funding to Harvard citing failures to enforce civil rights laws to protect Jewish students. It has also demanded that Harvard overhaul hiring and admissions, transform its governance and end diversity programs. President Alan Garber said while some of the demands are designed to combat antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

Founded in 1887, the law review picked former president Barack Obama as its first black leader in 1990, helping launch his political career. In February, it selected a Black student to run the publication for the second consecutive year.

The number of first-year Black students though who started this year at the nation’s most prestigious legal university has plummeted. Harvard Law said that only 19 Black students enrolled in the latest first year class — or 3.4% of students, down from 7.6% the prior year.

Read more: Harvard Law’s Path to Elite America Narrows for Black Students

(Updates with comment from Harvard Law School in fifth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Janet Lorin in New York at jlorin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net

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