We Might Not Even Need The Supreme Court To Get Rid Of Legacy Admissions

With the amount of lawmaking at the bench our current Supreme Court has been up to, many of us – myself included – wondered how long it would take before they decided on affirmative action. Lo and behold, I was paying attention to the wrong lawmakers – Congress may beat them to it! From Justice Alito’s Substack also known as The Wall Street Journal:

Senators are taking fresh aim at legacy and donor preferences for admission to college, as advantages given to certain students and groups come under increasing scrutiny following a recent Supreme Court ruling striking down the use of race in college admissions.A bill introduced Tuesday by Sens. Todd Young (R., Ind.) and Tim Kaine (D., Va.)—called the MERIT Act—would try to end legacy admissions at colleges and universities. The bipartisan legislation would add a new standard for accreditation under the Higher Education Act that would prohibit institutions from giving preferential treatment during the admissions process based on an applicant’s relationship to alumni or donors.

Interest in the legal basis for legacy admissions picked up right after SCOTUS dropped SFFA v. Harvard. Besides noticing that affirmative action was still good enough for the military to use to decide who gets to be eligible to die for country, people also noticed that legacy admissions — which is basically affirmative action for wealthy white people — was still in play. For a people whose mythic discourse often evokes themes of individualism and meritocracy, I find it hard to see getting rid of legacy admissions as anything other than a deeply American decision to step away from the long history of quasi-nepotism baked in to our institutions.

“America is a land of opportunity, not a land of aristocracy,” Young said. “Legacy admissions restrict opportunities for many bright and talented young Americans and provide unmerited advantage to the most connected individuals in our society.”

Don’t feel too bad for the legacy families that will be affected if this passes, though. I get the feeling that their kids will be just fine with the tutors and secretive donation bribes that totally never happen at these sorts of schools. Looking at you, Lori Loughlin.

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.