Violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the government said, could cost Yale millions of dollars in taxpayer money. The complaint said Yale received more than $600 million annually in federal funds.
Yale said its admissions process did not discriminate and complied with Supreme Court precedent.
Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department also supported a lawsuit against Harvard brought by Students for Fair Admissions claiming that the university had intentionally discriminated against Asian-American applicants. Given its withdrawal from the Yale case, the Justice Department seems likely to rescind its support of that case as well.
In 2019, a federal judge rejected the claims that Students for Fair Admissions made against Harvard, a decision that was upheld by an appeals court. The plaintiffs are expected to file a petition to the Supreme Court.
Because a motion that Students for Fair Admissions filed in October to intervene in the Yale case was denied, it would have to refile the case from scratch, though it could use the Justice Department complaint as a template.
Civil rights groups, including some representing Asian-American students, praised the Biden administration’s action. “It’s great to see that America again has a Justice Department that is back in the business of fulfilling its mission of advancing equal educational opportunity and promoting racial diversity,” said David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
But some Asian-Americans criticized the decision to drop the suit. Kenny Xu, author of “An Inconvenient Minority,” a book critical of race-based admissions, noted that just days ago, President Biden signed an executive order denouncing racial hostility against Asian-Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, which Donald J. Trump had blamed on the “China virus.”
The decision to drop the Yale suit, Mr. Xu said, “calls into serious question the Biden administration’s pledge to fight racism mere days after it made the orders.”
