The Wall Street Journal - 02.10.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Wednesday, October 2, 2019 |A

who often leads the campaign’s

outreach to younger black vot-

ers, said in an interview.

Mr. Biden has maintained his

national lead among black vot-

ers despite a series of contro-

versies about race, including

his opposition to mandated

busing to desegregate schools

in the 1970s and comments re-

garding his work with segrega-

tionist senators.

A big help is his tie to former

President Obama. Rep. Danny

Davis (D., Ill.), one of several

members of the Congressional

Black Caucus to endorse Ms.

Harris, said black people tend

to view the Obama years as an

era when the country was run-

ning in the right direction.

“Vice President Biden was a

part of that,” Mr. Davis said, ar-

guing Mr. Biden has a reservoir

of goodwill among older black

voters in particular.

As the first state on the

nominating calendar where the

Democratic electorate is mostly

black, South Carolina offers a

unique test for 2020 hopefuls.

Antonio Thompson, who

runs a nonemergency transpor-

tation business in Summerville,

S.C., was fishing off a pier with

friends on a recent Sunday. He

said he is with Mr. Biden be-

cause of “the Obama thing.”

But he said Mr. Obama’s en-

dorsement of another candidate

might sway him away from Mr.

Biden. “I’ll follow Obama what-

ever he says.” (Mr. Obama’s

aides have signaled the former

president is unlikely to endorse

early in the primary.)

Several candidates, including

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Ver-

mont, see an opening with

younger black voters.

“It’s wild the oldest person

has the best views for young

people,” Nicholas Hubbard, 23,

said of Mr. Sanders, who at 78 is

the oldest Democratic candidate.

Still, Mr. Hubbard, a com-

puter-science major at South

Carolina State University, said he

is supporting Mr. Biden for now

based on a purely pragmatic be-

lief: He could beat Mr. Trump.

“Until I see something that

makes me think otherwise, I’m

not changing,” he said.

FROM TOP: RICHARD ELLIS/ZUMA PRESS; MEGAN MAY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Joe Biden, shown in July at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, S.C., has the support of voters like Nicholas Hubbard, left.

affirmative action at a private

university to come before the

nine justices.

Harvard has said race is

one of many factors it takes

into consideration in making

admission decisions, and that

race alone is never the reason

a student is granted or denied

admission.

Judge Burroughs agreed,

saying in her ruling that while

“race is an important consid-

eration in deciding to admit

many African American and

Hispanic applicants,” it is

never the “defining feature” of

applications.

She said the magnitude of

the boost those applicants are

given is modest considering

how well-qualified all admit-

ted students are.

Since Asian-Americans now

make up roughly one-quarter

of Harvard’s admitted class

but only account for about 6%

of the U.S. population, the

judge said, “it is reasonable

for Harvard to determine that

students from other minority

backgrounds are more likely to

offer perspectives that are less

abundant in its classes and to

therefore primarily offer race-

based tips to those students.”

Harvard applauded the rul-

ing, with President Lawrence

Bacow saying the decision al-

lows the school to “reaffirm

the importance of diversity—

and everything it represents

to the world.”

Mr. Blum said Tuesday his

group was disappointed with

the outcome and would appeal

the decision to the First U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals and,

if necessary, to the U.S. Su-

preme Court.

“We believe that the docu-

ments, emails, data analysis

and depositions SFFA pre-

sented at trial compellingly re-

vealed Harvard’s systematic

discrimination against Asian-

American applicants,” he said.

Students for Fair Admis-

sions declined to identify indi-

vidual plaintiffs in bringing its

case but says it has 22,

members, including Asian-

American students who were

rejected by Harvard.

Judge Burroughs noted the

absence of such students from

the presentation of the case,

saying “SFFA did not present a

single Asian American appli-

cant who was overtly discrimi-

nated against or who was bet-

ter qualified than an admitted

white applicant when consid-

ering the full range of factors

that Harvard values in its ad-

missions process.”

At trial, a central tenet of

the plaintiffs’ argument fo-

cused on an aspect of Har-

vard’s admissions review

called the personal rating.

Asian applicants consistently

scored lower than white appli-

cants on that measure but per-

formed better on extracurricu-

lar and academic ratings.

Judge Burroughs said all

three ratings include subjec-

tive and objective elements.

While implicit bias—by ad-

missions officers or by teach-

ers and guidance counselors

who write recommendations—

may affect the ratings “at the

margins,” Judge Burroughs

wrote, the differences don’t

prove intentional discrimina-

tion “and would not be cured

by a judicial dictate that Har-

vard abandon considerations

of race in its admission pro-

cess.”

Judge Burroughs found in

her ruling that the expert

analysis of six years of admis-

sions data, on which both

sides relied heavily, proved in-

conclusive.

“Even assuming that there

is a statistically significant

difference between how Asian

American and white applicants

score on the personal rating,

the data does not clearly say

what accounts for that differ-

ence,” she wrote.

“In other words, although

the statistics perhaps tell

‘what,’ they do not tell ‘why,’

and here the ‘why’ is critically

important.”

However, the judge said

such statistical reviews can

help Harvard and other

schools find problems and

anomalies, and “should be

used as a check on the process

and as a way to recognize

when implicit bias might be

affecting outcomes.”

Judge Burroughs also sided

with Harvard in finding there

were no sufficient race-neutral

alternatives to current poli-

cies.

a lawsuit alleging the school
imposed a penalty on Asian-
American applicants by hold-
ing them to a higher standard
than applicants of other races.
The lawsuit, filed in 2014
by a nonprofit group called
Students for Fair Admissions,
accused the university of en-
gaging in “racial balancing,”
similar to quotas, and limiting
the number of Asian-American
applicants who are admitted.
The group is led by conser-
vative legal activist Edward
Blum, who spearheaded a sim-
ilar lawsuit against University
of Texas-Austin that reached
the Supreme Court. The group
also has a case pending
against the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Judge Burroughs’s decision
is the first major ruling in a
legal battle that could funda-
mentally reshape undergradu-
ate admissions.
The lawsuit challenges a
bedrock principle of American
higher education supported by
four decades of Supreme
Court precedents: that univer-
sities should be allowed to
consider an applicant’s race in
crafting their undergraduate
class because diverse cam-
puses have educational bene-
fits, such as better preparing
students for the global work-
force.
Court filings and testimony
from the bench trial brought
to light a number of unflatter-
ing but captivating facts about
Harvard’s admission process,
including how legacy status or
donor connections can help
applicants, and just how much
of a boost one can get by be-
ing a recruited athlete.
The judge said eliminating
those preferences may im-
prove socioeconomic diversity,
but on their own such changes
wouldn’t help with racial di-
versity and could weaken the
academic strength of Har-
vard’s class and hurt alumni
relations.
Should the Harvard lawsuit
reach the Supreme Court, it
would be the first challenge to

Continued from Page One

Harvard

Wins on

Admissions

Kim Solomon was surprised
to see Democratic presidential
candidate Kamala Harris seated
in the first row of pews at
Royal Missionary Baptist
Church in the predominantly
African-American city of North
Charleston, S.C.
Ms. Solomon, of Huntsville,
Ala., has been supporting for-
mer Vice President Joe Biden
and knew almost nothing about
the California senator, who is
black. But she is now consider-
ing supporting Ms. Harris when
Alabama votes in March.
“It’s making me want to go
out and find out more about
her,” Ms. Solomon, 54 years old,
said of Ms. Harris’s speech,
which assailed President
Trump’s leadership in the White
House. “Biden is still the one,
but I’d at least consider her.”
Black voters like Ms. Solo-
mon have been key to Mr. Bi-
den’s lead in polls ahead of
next year’s Democratic prima-
ries. But interviews with more
than three dozen black voters
across key primary states such
as South Carolina suggest many
of his admirers could be per-
suaded to support another can-
didate—particularly if they be-
gin to believe someone else
could win the general election
in November. Besides Ms. Har-
ris, some voters expressed
growing interest in Elizabeth
Warren, and recent polls show
the Massachusetts senator
earning more black support.
A September Quinnipiac Uni-
versity poll found that 40% of

black Democratic and Demo-

cratic-leaning participants

backed Mr. Biden, down slightly

from August but higher than

any other candidate’s support

in that group. Biden campaign

officials say his strength with

black voters proves he can rally

a diverse coalition in 2020, and

the former vice president has

pitched electability as the chief

argument for his candidacy.

But Mr. Biden has hit a

rough patch in surveys of early-

voting states—polls in Iowa

and New Hampshire recently

showed him trailing Ms. War-

ren—just as African-American

voters, like much of the elector-

ate, appear to be increasingly

tuning into the race.

The newly launched impeach-

ment proceedings against Mr.

Trump, stemming from the pres-

ident’s pressuring Ukraine to in-

vestigate Mr. Biden’s son’s work

in Ukraine, add uncertainty to

the primary—though other

Democratic candidates are so far

largely sidestepping questions

about the former vice president.

All that means Mr. Biden is

facing renewed pressure to de-

liver strong performances in

Iowa, which holds its first-in-

the-nation caucuses Feb. 3, and

next-up New Hampshire.

“The idea of electability for

some is that moderate white

people will vote for Vice Presi-

dent Biden—that’s what gives

him the electability cloak, to

paraphrase Harry Potter,” said

Leah Daughtry, who chaired the

2016 and 2008 Democratic na-

tional conventions. “If he doesn’t

win in two of the whitest states

in the nation, it would raise

some questions going forward.”

Mr. Biden’s opponents point

to the experience of Hillary

Clinton, the national front-run-

ner going into Iowa in 2008.

She lost there to Barack

Obama, and her black support

in other states collapsed.

The Biden campaign has

pushed back on the comparison.

“That argument was specifically

about then-Sen. Obama’s ability

to put together a coalition of

white people. And that is not

what this is,” Symone Sanders,

a senior adviser to Mr. Biden

BYJOSHUAJAMERSON
ANDTARINIPARTI

The judge affirmed a

‘very fine admissions

program that passes

constitutionalmuster.’

U.S. NEWS

Black Voters

Measure Up

Biden Rivals

The ex-vice president

has broad support, but

some Democrats say

they are open to others

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Age Gap

Youngerandolderblack

Democraticvotershave

differentviewsofthe

primaryfield:

Enthusiasm for top three

candidates by age

Source: Merged 2019 WSJ/NBC News polls

Note: ‘Don’t know/not sure’ responses

not charted

Joe Biden

Ages18-

Age

orolder

Elizabeth Warren

Ages18-

Age

orolder

Bernie Sanders

Ages18-

Age

orolder

Enthusiastic

Comfortable

Havesome

reservations

Very

uncomfortable

29% 38 19 10

(^433911)
2
24 30 126
17 39 21 7
29 44
14 46
21 4
23 10