Legacy admissions at Harvard come under fire after Supreme Court affirmative action ruling

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action practices in Harvard admissions, the school now faces a civil complaint over its legacy admissions practices.

The court, last week, ruled against Harvard and the University of North Carolina over their admissions practices prioritizing certain racial groups at the expense of others.

Now, the school faces a legal complaint from Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) over its admission of students based on the past attendance of their family members. 

"Each year, Harvard College grants special preference in its admissions process to hundreds of mostly white students — not because of anything they have accomplished, but rather solely because of who their relatives are," the complaint reads, according to The Hill. "The students who receive this preferential treatment — based solely on familial ties — are overwhelmingly white. Nearly 70% of donor-related applicants are white, and nearly 70% of legacy applicants are also white."

LCR filed the complaint on behalf of various black and Latino groups, including the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England, and the Greater Boston Latino Network.

The groups contend that accepting college applicants on the basis of their parents' past attendance or donor status may violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.