Report: DOJ aims at college affirmative-action programs

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Civil-rights groups Wednesday accused the Trump administration of “changing course on a key civil-rights issue” after reports that it was launching a new project to investigate whether universities discriminate against students based on race in the admission process.

The New York Times reported late Tuesday that a recent internal Justice Department job posting says it is seeking current employees interested in “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”

Advocacy groups believe the language targets affirmative-action programs designed to allow schools to consider race in pursuit of diversity on campus.

A Justice official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the notice was a “personnel posting” and not a new policy or program, adding that the department always investigates allegations of race discrimination. No further details were provided.

Such a program would mark the Justice Department’s latest effort under Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reshuffle the priorities of the Civil Rights Division, which is not unusual when administrations change.

The Trump administration has worked quickly to shift away from its Democratic predecessors in the areas of gay rights, voting rights and investigations of troubled police departments.

Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the top civil-rights lawyer in the Obama administration, said the posting shows Sessions’ department is “now actively seeking to challenge efforts that colleges and universities have undertaken to expand educational opportunity.”

That, she said, amounts to “changing course on a key civil-rights issue.”

But Roger Clegg, a civil- rights official during the Reagan era who now runs the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, said it was an encouraging sign.

“Anytime a university discriminates on the basis of race it ought to creep people out, and it doesn’t make any difference who’s being discriminated against on the basis of race,” Clegg told The AP. “I’m delighted that the Trump administration is doing this.”