A group of Jewish graduate students at Harvard, including several from the law school, have sued that university alleging rampant anti-Semitism in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint is embedded below, and I encourage you to at least skim it–it is 77 pages long. What is striking about the complaint is the breadth and depth of its factual allegations. If they are true, and I have no doubt they are, they make a powerful case for pervasive anti-Semitism that is being condoned, and even amplified, by Harvard’s administration.
A few other causes of action are thrown in, but Title VI, which prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of ancestry, race, ethnic characteristics, or national origin, is the key claim. I am not an expert in this area of the law, but I see no obvious reason why this is not a sound cause of action, based on the complaint’s factual allegations.
Meanwhile, at MIT, a group of alumni are preparing a lawsuit that will accuse MIT of discriminating against men. They are modeling their case on the Fair Admissions case against Harvard that won in the Supreme Court:
The alumni have formed a nonprofit called FairAdmissions@MIT and currently seek male plaintiffs rejected by MIT despite “top SAT/ACT scores, great grades, strong recommendations, and substantial extra-curricular activities,” the group’s website states.
“This is about a return to meritocracy,” said a member of the group who asked to remain anonymous for fear of possible retaliation against him for organizing the litigation.
“The entire political center of the institution has shifted so far left, and this is directly correlated,” he said. “The point is to treat applicants as individuals, not as members of an identity group.”
These cases (assuming the MIT one materializes) challenge the DEI regime that dominates higher education. In all likelihood they will meet with a hostile reception at the district court level, but such anti-discrimination cases pose a real problem for the Left. What liberals actually think is that discrimination is good and necessary. The only question is who is going to be discriminated against. This belief is effectuated by the DEI regime. However, that is not what the law says, and liberals can’t say what they really think out loud.
Not in court, anyway.