Vance warns colleges that 'expressed open hostility' to SCOTUS affirmative action ruling to preserve records

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 Ohio GOP Senator JD Vance demanded 10 colleges and universities preserve their communications after their "expressed open hostility" to the Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action ruling.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action at institutions of higher learning is unconstitutional in a case involving Harvard University's application policies that adversely impacted Asian students' admissions. Schools can, however, weigh race as a factor if the applicant has discussed how his or her race has impacted their life.

Following the decision, several presidents of top American colleges — including the entirety of Ivy League universities — announced their institutions’ commitments to "diversity" on campus in light of the ruling.

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Ohio GOP Senator JD Vance demanded 10 colleges and universities preserve their communications after their "expressed open hostility" to the Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action ruling. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

"I write to express concern about your institutions’ openly defiant and potentially unlawful reaction to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which reaffirmed the bedrock constitutional principle of equality under the law and therefore forbade invidious race-based preferences in college admissions," Vance wrote college presidents in his Thursday letter.

"As you know, the Court has instructed you to honor the spirit, and not just the letter, of the ruling," he continued. "Going forward, the Court explained, ‘universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.’"

Vance noted that "within hours of the decision’s pronouncement," the presidents and their "institutions expressed open hostility to the decision and seemed to announce an intention to circumvent it."

"Statements along these lines are particularly disconcerting in light of recent revelations that proponents of unlawful affirmative action sometimes practice ‘unstated affirmative action,’ in which hiring and admissions decisions are made on the basis of race in a covert and unspoken way, even when the relevant decisionmaker is placed under oath in a deposition," Vance wrote.

The Ohio Republican included statements from each of the presidents of the 10 schools after the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action.

"Princeton President [Christopher] Eisgruber complained that the Court’s decision was ‘unwelcome and disappointing’ and vowed to pursue ‘diversity . . . with energy, persistence, and a determination to succeed despite the restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court in its regrettable decision today,’" Vance recounted.

"Oberlin President [Twillie] Ambar felt ‘deeply saddened and concerned for the future of higher education’ when the Supreme Court’s ruling was announced," he continued. "She assured her students and faculty that, rather than dampening her enthusiasm for affirmative action policies, the decision ‘only strengthens our determination to be a welcoming place where diversity is celebrated.’"

"Harvard President [Lawrence] Bacow boasted that ‘[f]or almost a decade, Harvard has vigorously defended an admissions system’ that the Supreme Court ruled unlawful and then ‘reaffirm[ed] the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives and lived experiences[.]’"

"My colleagues have assured me that they share my concern that colleges and universities, and particularly the elite institutions to whom this letter is addressed, do not respect the Court’s judgment and will covertly defy a landmark civil rights decision with which they disagree," Vance continued.

The Ohio senator said that he did not need to remind the university presidents "of the ugly history of defiance and lawlessness that followed other landmark Supreme Court rulings demanding racial equality in education."

Vance noted the late Democratic Virginia Gov. Thomas B. Stanley’s response to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision "by pledging to show ‘the rest of the country [that] racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South’ and by vowing to organize ‘massive resistance’ in the Southern States."

"Violence and racial animosity ensued," Vance warned.

People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Vance said the Senate "is prepared to use its full investigative powers to uncover circumvention, covert or otherwise, of the Supreme Court’s ruling" on affirmative action and advised the school presidents "to retain admissions documents in anticipation of future congressional investigations, including digital communications between admissions officers, any demographic or other data compiled during future admissions cycles, and other relevant materials."

"As you are aware, a number of federal criminal statutes regulate the destruction of records connected to federal investigations, some of which apply prior to the formal commencement of any inquiry," he added.

The Ohio Republican peppered the university leaders with several questions, including the procedures the school will be using to preserve their records and how the schools will "ensure that new admissions practices do not ‘simply establish. . . the regime’ that the Supreme Court has held unlawful."

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Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Oberlin College and Kenyon College for comment on the letter.

A spokesperson for Harvard pointed Fox News Digital to the university's statement after the decision where the school said it "will certainly comply with the Court’s decision."

An Oberlin College spokesperson told Fox News Digital the school is "reviewing the Supreme Court's decision carefully to fully understand its implications."

"Oberlin will comply with the law. We believe we can do this and still be, as President Ambar wrote in her letter to the Oberlin community, ‘a welcoming place where diversity is celebrated, where all voices are valued, and where every student can thrive,’" the spokesperson added.

None of the other schools immediately responded.