Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) called on 10 universities to preserve their communications after they reacted to the Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action ruling and “expressed open hostility.”
The Supreme Court ruled to ban the consideration of race as part of admissions decisions at colleges, including Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, ending the decades-long practice known as affirmative action.
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Schools can consider race as a factor if the applicant has talked about how his or her race has affected their life. The majority held that "nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. But, despite the dissent's assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today."
In response, several presidents of top universities emphasized their commitment to promoting “diversity” on campus. As a result, Vance sent letters to top universities on Thursday warning them against what he believed to be their intention to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling.
"I write to express concern about your institutions’ openly defiant and potentially unlawful reaction to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which reaffirmed the bedrock constitutional principle of equality under the law and therefore forbade invidious race-based preferences in college admissions," Vance wrote.
"As you know, the Court has instructed you to honor the spirit, and not just the letter, of the ruling," he continued. "Going forward, the Court explained, ‘universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.’"
In his letter, Vance included statements from each of the presidents of the 10 schools after the high court struck down race-based affirmative action.
The Ohio senator asked the university presidents to respond to several questions including the procedures the schools will be using to preserve their records and how they will ensure their new admissions practices uphold the recent ruling.
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Vance also vowed that the Senate would use its full investigative powers to uncover circumvention, covert or otherwise, of the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action and advised schools “to retain admission documents in anticipation of future congressional investigations, including digital communications between admissions officers, any demographic or other data compiled during future admissions cycles, and other relevant materials."