This Sept 9, 2016 photo shows Harkness Tower on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. (BETH J. HARPAZ / AP)
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped its lawsuit accusing Yale University of discriminating against Asian and white applicants in undergraduate admissions, as the debate over affirmative action in higher education heads for a possible showdown at the Supreme Court.
Wednesday's voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit, which had been brought by the administration of former US president Donald Trump, followed a Nov 12 decision by a federal appeals court that Harvard University's use of race in undergraduate admissions complied with federal civil rights law.
The Ivy League school had been accused of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with policies that left Asian Americans and whites one-eighth to one-fourth as likely to win admission as comparable blacks
In a letter to Yale's lawyer, Gregory Friel, deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the Justice Department dropped the Yale case "in light of all available facts, circumstances, and legal developments", including the Harvard case.
He said the department, now under the administration of US President Joe Biden, will review the matter through its administrative process.
In an open letter, Yale President Peter Salovey welcomed the department's decision.
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He said the university was committed to an academic environment "built on a wide range of strengths and backgrounds", and confident its admissions process "complies fully with decades of Supreme Court decisions".
But Yukong Zhao, the president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, said: "I am totally shocked by the Biden DOJ's hasty decision to drop the Yale lawsuit, only eight days after President Biden signed an executive order claiming to combat anti-Asian discrimination."
Affirmative action
The Ivy League school had been accused of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with policies that left Asian Americans and whites one-eighth to one-fourth as likely to win admission as comparable blacks.
Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut, had been sued in October as part of Trump's drive against affirmative action in admissions to elite universities.
Democrat Biden is expected to be more supportive than his Republican predecessor Trump of efforts to promote diversity in schools.
Legal experts believe the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority could use the Harvard lawsuit, which accuses the school of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, to end 43 years of letting race be used in higher education admissions.
That lawsuit was filed by Students for Fair Admissions, with support from Trump.
Edward Blum, the group's president, said it planned to sue Yale over its admissions practices "in the coming days".
The group sued Harvard in 2014, alleging the school intentionally discriminated against Asian American applicants by holding them to a higher standard in undergraduate admissions.
Biden's Justice Department is working to undo Trump policies, including "zero tolerance", the immigration policy that was responsible for family separations.
READ MORE: US universities tread warily
The Supreme Court agreed to requests from the Biden administration on Wednesday to put off arguments in two challenges to Trump-era policies involving the US-Mexico border wall and asylum-seekers as Biden works to change the policies that had been challenged in court.
