For Immediate Release

December 9, 2021

SAN DIEGO, CA -- December 9, 2021- Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) issues the following statement to condemn the Biden Administration's unjustifiable endorsement of racial preferences and racial balancing in college admissions. As an organization that filed an amicus brief in support of SFFA's certiorari petition to the Supreme Court in March, 2021, CFER stands by our main argument that the high court should hear the case to review the legality and constitutionality of race-based college admissions.

"Over 9.65 million Californians resoundingly rejected Proposition 16 in 2020, proving that the average American detests racial preferences," commented Frank Xu, president of CFER. "In contrast to the Biden administration's disregard for the public will, we urge the Supreme Court to consider the Harvard case."

On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the United States Department of Justice issued a legal brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to grant review to Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) for its legal challenge of Harvard University's undergraduate admissions. The arguments presented by the Federal District Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and now the Biden Administration bear stunning resemblances by uniformly stressing that Harvard has exercised narrow tailoring, exhausted workable race-neutral alternatives and proven without a doubt that its admissions practices suffice a compelling government interest for student-body diversity. In other words, the Biden Administration simply regurgitated the lower court rulings. Such findings constitute a categorical appraisal of Harvard's race-conscious practices, which have been emulated by other American colleges and universities. Vestiges of prejudices and presumptions that unquestionably support the race-preferential status quo are evident throughout the legal brief.

In reality, neither the validity of undefined student-body diversity nor the necessity of racial balancing is self-evident or legally settled. The courts and the Federal Government should not defer to Harvard in determining whether there is a compelling need for racial discrimination. Enhancing the case for a Supreme Court review of the Harvard case is the undeniable fact that the public has consistently rejected racial preferences in admissions, which is evidenced by three decades of polling data and modern ballot initiative history in California and Washington.

As such, CFER sincerely hopes that the Supreme Court will disregard DOJ's misguided pleading and grant certiorari in SFFA v. Harvard, in consideration of America's long-standing and broad-based antipathy to race-based public programs.