In an unusual request, the United States Supreme Court has asked for the Biden administration’s opinion on whether it should take up the case of Harvard University’s use of race in undergraduate admissions.
The Supreme Court doesn’t often ask for feedback from the current presidential administration. Jin Hee Lee, senior director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said that the request is even more unusual given that the case itself questions long-standing U.S. law, first established in 1978.
“Presumably, [the Supreme Court] wants to hear the position of the current administration,” said Lee. “What they do with that information? That’s like reading tea leaves.”
Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, executive director of the Civil Rights and Education Initiative and an education professor at the University of Kentucky, said that the request could be “an opportunity for the Biden administration to say they acknowledge the precedent set by previous years.”
The Harvard case, first taken up by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) in 2014, pits an anonymous group of Asian American students against Harvard, claiming the university’s admissions policies violate Title VI of the Civil Rights act. The case’s latest ruling came in November 2020, when the first U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous October 2019 ruling in favor of Harvard.
The Supreme Court “doesn’t change precedent lightly; even the conservative justices preserve and protect,” said Lee.
In order to sustain a challenge, those persons suing an institution must prove that race was the defining reason for admittance, as opposed to one aspect reviewed holistically in a highly competitive atmosphere, said Vincent.
