In a recent Justia blog post, Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar provided analysis on reports that the Trump Justice Department (DOJ) plans to direct resources into investigating and possibly suing colleges and universities that make use of race-based affirmative action plans.

Dean Amar states, "...there are obviously political aspects of the Administration’s intensified interest in affirmative action. Follow-up news reports suggest that the DOJ is particularly interested in examining and perhaps participating in prominent recent lawsuits alleging that applicants of Asian ancestry have been victimized by affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. This has led some commentators to infer that the Administration seeks to use the affirmative action issue to drive a wedge between Asian Americans and other racial minority groups."

He goes on to discuss Asian Americans' divergent views of affirmative action, the significance of aggregate data, and the so-called "Asian penalty" vs. race-based affirmative action. 

Read the full post at verdict.justia.com.