As President-elect Joe Biden and his administration address higher education issues in the coming months, many education and legal experts expect his Department of Justice to extend support to universities â including Harvard â currently embroiled in legal challenges from anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions.
Still, experts said that Supreme Court nominations made during the previous administration will likely more heavily influence the fate of the lawsuit and affirmative action at large than changes in the White House.
SFFA sued the University in Nov. 2014, claiming that Harvard intentionally discriminated against Asian American applicants through its admissions program.
District court hearings began in Oct. 2018, and Judge Allison D. Burroughs decided in Harvardâs favor just under a year later, determining that there was no evidence of discrimination in Harvardâs race-conscious admissions process.