The Trump administration is investigating Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review for alleged racial discrimination in violation of civil rights law.
The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced investigations Monday following an explosive Washington Free Beacon story last week that revealed a pattern of apparent racial discrimination at the Harvard Law Review.
The Free Beacon’s reporting — based on internal documents over a period lasting more than four years — chronicled how diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology became central to the Harvard Law Review‘s membership and to articles throughout the editorial process.
“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,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
“Title VI’s demands are clear: Recipients of federal financial assistance may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. No institution — no matter its pedigree, prestige, or wealth — is above the law. The Trump administration will not allow Harvard, or any other recipients of federal funds, to trample on anyone’s civil rights,” Trainor added.
Federal civil rights law under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination by institutions that receive federal funding. Left-wing DEI programs typically focus obsessively on race and immutable characteristics instead of evaluating individual achievement and merit.
“Law journal membership and publication are crucial achievements that build momentum for law students’ careers and shape legal scholarship,” said Anthony Archeval, the acting director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights.
“This investigation reflects the administration’s commonsense understanding that these opportunities should be earned through merit-based standards and not race.”
Harvard University is currently resisting the Trump administration’s proposed reforms to bring ideological balance to its campus in exchange for restoring more than $2 billion in federal funding. The White House previously launched a review of $9 billion of federal funding to Harvard because of worries about its antisemitic campus climate and alleged unlawful racial discrimination.
“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. The Harvard Law Review is a student-run organization that is legally independent from the law school,” a Harvard Law School spokesperson told NR.
A group opposed to race-based admissions brought a lawsuit against the Harvard Law Review, Harvard University, and Harvard Law School in 2018 alleging that the prestigious legal journal was violating anti-discrimination laws. A federal judge tossed out the case the following year after Harvard University and Law School, and the Law Review argued separately that the two are independent entities.
The case was dismissed years before the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling to ban race-based college admissions policies have formed the legal basis for the administration’s probes. It also lacked the information provided by the Free Beacon‘s reporting on the apparent pervasiveness of racial bias inside the Harvard Law Review.
The Trump administration has launched civil rights investigations into dozens of educational institutions over campus antisemitism and allegations of racial discrimination in the form of DEI programs.