Two federal agencies launched surveys on Monday in Harvard and the Harvard Law Review for discrimination based on race and sex in the selection of articles and membership of the journal, according to a joint press release.
The survey, which will be undertaken by the civil rights offices of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Social Services, will examine if Harvard and the Revue du Law raped. Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race.
He occurs three days after the Washington Free Beacon published an article accusing the journal of the right to discriminate the candidates and the white authors. The free tag has cited disclosed memos and Slack messages that have framed the non -white racial identity of the authors as points in favor of the publication and urged publishers to consider the “Dei factors” in the revision of articles.
The HHS and the Department of Education cited the incidents reported in the free tag as reasons of the survey.
“The process of selecting Harvard Law Review’s article seems to choose the winners and the losers on the basis of the race, using a loot system in which the legal researcher’s race is, if not more, important than the merit of the submission,” said the acting assistant from the HHS to Craig W. Train in the press release on Monday.
Under Title VI, the federal government can revoke the federal funding of the institutions which engage in discrimination based on race, color, national origin or shared ancestry. The law has become a preferred legal tool for the Republicans seeking to revoke Federal Funding of Harvard.
When the Trump administration froze more than $ 2.2 billion in university federal funding, it allegedly alleged that Harvard flouted “civil rights laws” by authorizing anti -Semitism on its campus. The administration also systematically attacked the diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which he asked Harvard to dismantle as a condition for maintaining his federal funding, as a racial discrimination prohibited under title VI.
But when Harvard continued last week to block freezing, university lawyers argued that the government had not followed the procedures – including in -depth investigations and written conclusions – which it must finish before withdrawing funding under title VI.
The Law Review, a publication led by students, is independent of the Harvard Law School. But the Title V Investigation will examine the relationship between the two, including “financial links, surveillance procedures and selection policies”.
“This survey reflects the understanding of the common sense of the administration that these opportunities should be won through standards based on merit and not of race,” said Anthony F. Archeval, interim director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, in the press release.
The spokesperson for HLS, Jeff Neal, underlined the independent status of the law review in a declaration sent by email and wrote that the law faculty “is committed to ensuring that the programs and activities that it supervises are in accordance with all applicable laws and to investigate any alleged violation of credibility.”
He also referred the Crimson to a trial brought in 2018, claiming that the revision of the law violated the anti-discrimination law in his selection of articles and members, which was rejected by the US District Court of Massachusetts.
The Harvard Law Review did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The free Friday article of the beacon quickly drawn the attention of the public – including the billionaire Trump Ally Elon Musk, who republished him on social networks. Friday evening, the first -year students of HLS received a pair of emails apparently linked to the allegations of the article – one threatening a pursuit, the other encouraging candidates for the journal of the right to pretend to be identified as racial and sexual minorities to increase their chances of acceptance in the newspaper.
The sender of emails claimed to represent the organization – teachers, former and students opposed to racial preferences – who continued the law review in 2018.
The dean of the students of the Harvard Law School, Stephen L. Ball, condemned emails as “disturbing” and “hateful” in a Saturday e-mail to the student body HLS.
—The screenwriter Hugo C. Chiasson is contacted at Hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow it on x @hugochiassonn.
—The Staff writer, Sebastian B. Connolly, can be contacted at sebastian.connolly@thecrimson.com and on x @ sebastianc4784.
