DoJ: Harvard Violated Civil Rights Laws

The Feds aren't playing anymore with the Crimson... In a letter sent to Harvard President Alan Garber on Monday and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, attorneys for the administration said the investigation found that Harvard knew Jewish and Israeli students felt threatened on its campus and acted with deliberate indifference.  ~~~ ~~~ “Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” the letter states. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.” (HotAir)

Now, as HotAir points out, Harvard has three options...

Option 1 is to go the Hillsdale College route and eschew any/all federal (and state) funding from now on. Option 2 is to fight the Feds' in federal court. Option 3 is to cave and accept whatever punishment the Feds. issue.

I'm betting its' Option 3; why? The reason Hillsdale is successful as a liberal arts college is their entire structure is built around not taking taxpayer funding of any sort; Harvard, by contrast, pretty much depends on federal funding for much of its' activities.

If they fight, that could have unintended consequences; why? Because this is a civil finding, the evidentiary standard is lower (51% or "preponderance of the evidence") and there was plenty of evidence showing Harvard was violating federal civil rights laws (the Fair Admissions case, anyone?) plus should they fight and lose, the punishments could be far worse than what could be expected otherwise.

Which leaves Option 3, to cave and accept whatever punishment the Feds' dole out to them. I suspect this is what will happen but who knows in this day and age...

USDoT to Offer $5.4bn in Transportation Contracts, Strikes Diversity Provisions in Contract Language

Sooner they can end diversity provisions in federal contracts, the better....

The U.S. government will make available $5.4 billion in grant funding for building, replacing or repairing bridges across the country under a 2021 infrastructure law, but is striking diversity requirements, the U.S. Department of Transportation said on Monday.

USDOT said it was removing climate change, environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion from grant application requirements for bridges from the funding approved in 2021 under a $1-trillion infrastructure law signed by former President Joe Biden.

Last week, USDOT said separately it would end consideration of race or gender when awarding billions of dollars in federal highway and transit project funding set aside for disadvantaged small businesses. (Salem News Channel)

The problem with diversity provisions aren't that not everyone will benefit but that, to borrow John Roberts' famous dictum, the way to prevent discrimination on the basis of race (or ethnicity or gender, etc.) is very simple: stop discriminating by those bases. Pick the best offer that is cost-effective and let the chips fall where they will.

Might not mean you get the absolute best company/individual (although that should be an ideal) but anything would be better than what currently exists nowadays.

Fair Admissions II: UCLA Medical School Sued Over Discrimination in Admissions

NEW: UCLA medical school was sued today for discriminating against whites and Asians in admissions.

The lawsuit is based on my reporting from last year. It was filed by Students for Fair Admissions—the same group that got affirmative action outlawed nationwide.🧵 https://t.co/9mm1B6ErsN

— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 8, 2025

Per Twitchy via the Free Beacon... UCLA medical school was sued for race discrimination on Thursday after whistleblowers alleged that the school holds black and Latino applicants to a lower standard than their white and Asian counterparts, the latest challenge for a beleaguered university already in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

The complaint is based on multiple Washington Free Beacon reports about the extent of racial preferences at the medical school. It was filed by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the group whose lawsuit against Harvard University resulted in the Supreme Court decision, in 2023, that outlawed affirmative action in higher education.

In a statement to the Free Beacon, SFFA president Edward Blum framed the lawsuit as a sequel to the Harvard case. 'This lawsuit sends an important message to every institution of higher education: Any school and administrator that uses race and racial proxies in admissions in defiance of the Supreme Court's ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard will be sued,' Blum said. 'University administrators in their official and personal capacities will face vigorous legal challenges if they use race and racial proxies in the admissions process.'

I could see this going pear-shaped for UCLA at least three different ways: (1) if this case makes it to SCOTUS, expect them to use the 2023 Fair Admissions case as the cudgel (and if Roberts is smart, he'll let Thomas write the opinion), (2) Title VI investigations from the Dept. of Justice (UCLA, like most universities, receives federal funding/grants and (3) both Proposition 209 and the Unruh Civil Rights Act since UCLA is part of the University of California System.

Bottom line here is that the courts are going to have to, legally speaking, beat the Fair Admissions case law into the heads of university presidents, provosts and admissions officials until John Roberts' quote is firmly entrenched into federal law to the point where no one dares touch it...

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Period, end of story.

YAF's Going After of DEI

At its' core, DEI treats people not as individuals with unique abilities and interests but as plug-and-play groups, to be looked at only in those terms. It is pernicious and one group is going after colleges and universities still continuing their racism-disguised-as-DEI....

(Townhall) Colleges that defy President Donald Trump’s executive order on DEI nonsense will not go unnoticed. We know some rebels think they’re above the law because they believe their feelings give them that license—not the case. 

People are watching, and one of those groups is Young America’s Foundation, which announced it was filing multiple complaints against higher education institutions nationwide that violated the order. YAF communications chief Spencer Brown announced the multi-pronged assault aimed at excising this woke cancer from these schools:

NEW: @YAF is expanding its nationwide offensive to root out radical and discriminatory DEI programs that violate Title VI, Title IX, and @POTUS executive orders.

On Monday, we filed complaints with @EDcivilrights against four additional schools.🧵

— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) March 3, 2025

Go read the tweet thread; I'll be shocked if legislators in those states - particularly Kansas and Tennessee - don't take these universities (especially the Volunteer State's flagship school) - to the legal woodshed over this. Worse, once the Big G gets their hooks involved, its' effectively over but the crying.