The national campaign to end legacy college admissions is gaining momentum

Following the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling against race-based college admissions, a bipartisan movement against legacy admissions has also been gaining traction at the state and federal levels.

Legacy admissions refers to letting a student into a school because a family member went to that school. Virginia presented legislation ban legacy entries on January 18 and legislation he filed in November to do so in Congress, after the Supreme Court shocking reduce race-based admissions in June.

The bill in Virginia passed the state Senate unanimously and the federal legislation was bipartisan, authored by Sen. Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, and Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia.

Virginia's bill to ban legacy admissions in the state was introduced by Democratic Virginia state senators Schuyler VanValkenburg and Jeremy McPike in January. The invoice aims to ban admissions to a university based on “family relationship with any donor”.

“No public institution of higher education shall provide any type of preferential treatment in the admissions decision to any student applicant on the basis of such student's legacy status or such student's family relationship to any donor of this institution,” the bill says.

Kaine and Young's bill also plans to ban legacy admissions, but at the federal level.

“Legacy admissions restricts opportunities for many bright and talented young Americans and provides an undeserved advantage to the most connected people in our society. Our bill will end legacy preferences in the admissions process and will promote upward mobility for Americans of all backgrounds.” young man said in a November press release announcing the bill.

“A student's acceptance to a college should not depend on whether their parents attended that school or gave a large amount of money,” Kaine said in the news release.

Approximately 56% of the top 250 US universities used legacy admissions in the enrollment process, seconds in the Wall Street Journal.

The Connecticut Legislature's education committee also plans to study legacy admissions this coming session, seconds in The Connecticut Mirror.

Connecticut State Representative Gregory Haddad, who serves as co-chair of the Connecticut Higher Education and Employment Promotion Committee, said he believes the drop in racial admissions will result in fewer minorities than they go to university

“Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, black and Hispanic high school students already faced challenges that made them far less likely to go to college and took away from colleges the best tool they had to mitigate that disparity . it's just going to make it harder,” Haddad told the Mirror. “So legacy admissions is something we will do.”

While Haddad and others have argued that legacy admissions disproportionately benefits wealthy white applicants, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the practice likely doesn't violate civil rights laws the way the so-called action does affirmative

Application data for the 2023-2024 school year showed that minority applications to the college increased 15% from 2022, seconds in the common application.

“Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination. If schools use legacy preferences to exclude students based on race, yes, they are violating Title VI. I doubt many use them that way; I think most are genuine when they say it's about fundraising or community building. But the Department of Education would have to look closely at each institution's usage to know for sure,” Alison Somin, a legal fellow at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm, told the DCNF.

Another legal expert, GianCarlo Canaparo, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said states could enact laws to ban legacy admissions.

“States are free to pass laws to regulate public schools and can probably force private schools within their borders to waive legacy admissions,” Canaparo told the DCNF.

But he said legacy admissions are unlikely to violate any civil rights laws or the Constitution's equal protection clause.

“Equal protection applies to what the Supreme Court has called 'protected classes': race, sex, religion, national origin. An inherited preference does not fit into any of these groups,” Canaparo continued.

Nicole Pearson, a practicing attorney in California, agreed that the legacy admissions probably don't violate any civil rights laws.

“I can't imagine how legacy admissions would violate civil rights,” Pearson told the DCNF.

Harvard University has expressed concern that eliminating legacy admissions will decrease “support” and “involvement” on campus, seconds to a 2018 report.

“While alumni support Harvard for many reasons, the committee is concerned that removing any consideration of whether an applicant's parent attended Harvard or Radcliffe diminishes this vital sense of commitment and support,” he says the report

The Biden administration open an inquiry into Harvard legacy admissions in July 2023 after the Supreme Court ruled against race-based admissions in June 2023. Wesleyan University voluntarily finished legacy admissions in July 2023, as well as the University of Minnesota.

VanValkenburg, McPike and Haddad did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation's request for comment.

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