Strictly speaking, Princeton is not being sued by anyone. There is no lawsuit here. There was a complaint by a rejected applicant to the federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights
(All elite institutions of higher education receive federal funds.)
Amazingly, this law has been on the books since the 1960s, but apparently most students have not been aware of their opportunity to make complaints to the federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in regard to the practices of privately operated colleges and universities. Previous Supreme Court cases on affirmative action have been based on a different body of law, the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution as applied to state universities.
So are they going to opine on whether there was discrimination by race, or perhaps not opine at all? Or is there any chance that they would look at data, like that of Thomas Espenshade, that points to widespread socio-economic discrimination? Perhaps give some guidance as to whether that is acceptable or not?
Strictly speaking, Princeton is not being sued by anyone. There is no lawsuit here. There was a complaint by a rejected applicant to the federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/complaintprocess.ht...
and while the complainant first matriculated at Yale and then transferred to Harvard the inquiry was expanded.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/09/08/21307/
There still has not been any announcement of findings from the inquiry.
The controlling law is a federal statute prohibiting discrimination by race in any higher education institution receiving federal funds.
http://www.ed.gov/policy/rights/guid/ocr/raceoverview.html
(All elite institutions of higher education receive federal funds.)
Amazingly, this law has been on the books since the 1960s, but apparently most students have not been aware of their opportunity to make complaints to the federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in regard to the practices of privately operated colleges and universities. Previous Supreme Court cases on affirmative action have been based on a different body of law, the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution as applied to state universities.