A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 , 2020
HAPPENING TODAYFor the latest updates all day, visit washingtonpost.com.All day | The Supreme Court meets for a conference. For developments,
visit washingtonpost.com/national.
8:30 a.m. | The Labor Department issues producer prices for October,
which are estimated to rise 0.2 percent. Visit washingtonpost.com/
business for details.
CORRECTIONSDownload The
Washington Post app
Stay informed with award-winning
national and international news,
PLUS c omplete local news coverage
of the D.C. metro area. Create
customized news alerts, save
articles for offline reading in My
Post, browse the daily print edition
and scroll through our the Discover
tab to find stories that interest you.
Free to download on the App Store
and Play Store, subscribers enjoy
unlimited access.KLMNO
NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
For home delivery comments
or concerns contact us at
washingtonpost.com/subscriberservices or
send us an email at
[email protected] or call
202-334-6100 or 800-477-
TO SUBSCRIBE
800-753-POST (7678)
TO ADVERTISE
washingtonpost.com/mediakit
Classified: 202-334-
Display: 202-334-
MAIN PHONE NUMBER
202-334-
TO REACH THE NEWSROOM
Metro: 202-334-7300;
[email protected]
National: 202-334-7410;
[email protected]
Business: 202-334-7320;
[email protected]
Sports: 202-334-7350;
[email protected]
Reader Advocate: 202-334-7582;
[email protected]
TO REACH THE OPINION PAGES
Letters to the editor:
[email protected] or call
202-334-
Opinion:
[email protected]
Published daily (ISSN 0190-8286).
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Washington Post, 1301 K St. NW, Washington,
D.C. 20071.
Periodicals postage paid in Washington, D.C., and
additional mailing office.
l A N ov. 12 Local Living article
about shared home office space
misquoted interior designer
Kristin Try on the approximate
cost of installing built-in
bookcases. She estimated the
cost at $15,000, not $1,500.l A C HIP Says factoid on the
Nov. 9 K idsPost page incorrectly
said that a day on Venus is longer
than a year on Earth. It should
have said that a day on Venus is
longer than a year on Venus. In
other words, it takes the planet
243 Earth days to make a full
rotation on its axis but only 225
Earth days to travel around the
Sun.The Washington Post is committed to
correcting errors that appear in the
newspaper. Those interested in
contacting the paper for that purpose
can:
Email: [email protected].
Call: 2 02-334-6000, and ask to be
connected to the desk involved —
National, Foreign, Metro, Style, Sports,
Business or any of the weekly sections.
Comments can be directed to The
Post’s reader advocate, who can be
reached at 202-334-7582 or
[email protected].All programs will be streamed
live at washingtonpostlive.com, on
Facebook Live, YouTube, and
Twitter. Email postlive@washpost.
com to submit questions for our
upcoming speakers.
Upcoming Washington
Post Live events
House Democrats
head into next
week’s leadership
elections without
any competition
in the top posts that a trio of
octogenarians have comfortably
held for more than 15 years, but
several down-ballot races serve
as the latest phase in the
jockeying to succeed those
elderly leaders.
Moreover, after a hugely
disappointing election that has
shrunk their majority, House
Democrats face these contests
amid another round of
existential questioning of their
political standing across the
nation. Moderates and liberals
are battling over which side is to
blame for the party’s historically
incongruous loss of seats as their
presidential nominee, Joe Biden,
racked up the second largest
margin of victory in the popular
vote this century.
Each of the contested races to
serve in House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi’s leadership team pits
competing wings of her caucus
against each other, sometimes
along the lines of ideology, race
and ethnicity, sexual orientation
and geography.
How these races shape up will
reveal where the House
Democrats see the future of the
national Democratic Party, as it
prepares to work with Biden’s
incoming administration
knowing that the 77-year-old
Democrat once suggested a
Biden presidency would serve as
its own transition to the party’s
next-generation leaders.
These lower-level races will
not weaken the hand of Pelosi
(D-Calif.), but they could begin
to point the Democratic caucus
toward its post-Pelosi future. At
80, Pelosi is followed by Majority
Leader Steny H. Hoyer, 81, and
Majority Whip James E. Clyburn,
80.
Pelosi and Hoyer (D-Md.) have
held the top two posts for 18
years, while Clyburn (D-S.C.) has
been right behind them for 15
years. Despite this year’s
political disappointment, all
three are expected to win
another two-year term by
acclamation in next week’s
secret ballot. Because of the
pandemic, the elections will
probably be conducted virtually.
No one knows when the trio
will step aside, but it is now
accepted conventional wisdom
that whenever Pelosi leaves, the
other 80-somethings will also
step aside and allow the next
generation to take the reins. In a
recent interview, Hoyer told The
Washington Post he could be
content leaving at the end of
2022 knowing he spent two
decades as the No. 2 Democrat,
without ever becoming speaker
in his own right.
In a b id to beat back a
moderate rebellion two years
ago, Pelosi even suggested she
would only serve until the end of
2022, but that pledge came
alongside a recommendation toimpose term limits on other
leadership posts and on
committee chairs — a proposal
that only grew dust as it was cast
aside without consideration.
The two biggest races are for
the slots of assistant speaker,
which is technically considered
the No. 4 position, and chair of
the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, which
runs the political arm.
Rep. Katherine M. Clark (D-
Mass.), who holds a more junior
leadership post, has emerged as
the front-runner to win the
assistant speaker race but first
must defeat Rep. David N.
Cicilline (D-R.I.), a senior
member of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus and one of
the caucus’s most prominent gay
lawmakers.
In September, as she launched
her bid for a promotion, Clark
sent a letter to all Democrats
that, in retrospect, hit the
precise tone for what turned out
to be tumultuous political times
— a Biden victory, a h ung verdict
in the Senate until January
runoff elections in Georgia, and
a House majority shrunken by
close to 10 seats.
“The challenges and
opportunities facing our caucus
and our country are
unprecedented and will require
that we leverage the talent and
expertise of our members, unite
behind our shared values, and
deliver results for all
communities,” Clark wrote.
She serves as vice
chairwoman of the caucus, the
deputy to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
(D-N.Y.), who is the caucus
chairman. If Clark wins, she
would technically bump ahead
of Jeffries, but his position
comes with a bigger portfolio
and a larger budget.
Combined with his prominent
role as a House manager inPresident Trump’s impeachment
trial in the Senate, Jeffries has
positioned himself as the most
prominent leader of the younger
Democratic generation —
putting him on a potential path
to become the first Black speaker
of the House.
Jeffries and Clark have
worked seamlessly together,
according to both their camps,
and whenever the leadership
turnover comes, it would be easy
to see Clark running alongside
Jeffries to become majority
leader — if she holds on to defeat
Cicilline.
The Democratic class of 2012,
which included more than 40
members, many of whom with
deep ambition, continues to
position its members for future
power. Jeffries was elected that
year, while Clark joined that
group later in 2013 when she
won a special election to her seat
outside Boston.
The DCCC race pits two
members of the 2012 class, Reps.
Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) and
Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.),
against each other in what is
likely to be the most agonizing
race — not because of the
combatants, but because the
contest comes amid the ongoing
what-went-wrong discussion
about the 2020 campaign.
The victor will succeed Rep.
Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), another
from the 2012 class, whose rocky
early tenure overseeing the
campaign arm built to what
seemed like a solid path to going
north of 240 seats following
Democrats’ 40-seat gain for the
majority in 2018.
“House Democrats are poised
to further strengthen our
majority — the biggest, most
diverse, most dynamic, women-
led House majority in history,”
Pelosi said at an Election Day
briefing, with Bustos at her side.Instead, by Monday afternoon
this week, Bustos had stepped
down from the DCCC without
having knocked off a single
Republican incumbent.
Now, the choice between
Cárdenas, a prodigious
fundraiser for the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus, and Maloney,
whose district supported Trump
four years ago, serves as its own
microcosm of party politics.
Democrats were alarmed by
Biden’s relatively weak showing
with Latino voters in some
regions, while House Democrats
lost two of their own seats with
large Hispanic populations in
South Florida and failed again to
win a South Texas district that is
majority Mexican American.
Maloney led the review of the
2016 campaign, after which
Democrats gained six seats
behind Hillary Clinton,
amassing a leading margin of
nearly 3 million votes in the
national presidential ballot, but
came up short in many races
they could have won.
Ultimately, as party insiders
say, these races can all turn on
an interlocking dynamic, the
results of one prompting
another to go in a different
direction.
Should Clark dispatch
Cicilline, some Democrats may
feel inclined to support Maloney,
who is gay, and if Cárdenas were
to lose, that could give a boost to
another Hispanic caucus
member, Rep. Peter Aguilar (D-
Calif.), who is running to succeed
Clark as vice chairman.
If all those dominoes fell
together, the ranks behind the
80-something leaders would be
fairly representative of the new
Democratic coalition: A Black
man (Jeffries), a White woman
(Clark), a Latino (Aguilar) and a
gay man (Maloney).
[email protected]The races that will reveal Democratic Party’s future
@PKCapitol
PAUL KANEJIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 8 0, with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer at a Capitol news
conference, is expected to win another two-year term next week leading her party in the House.BY NICK ANDERSONA federal appeals court on
Thursday upheld a 2019 ruling
that Harvard University does not
discriminate against Asian Amer-
icans in admissions, a victory for
the university in an affirmative-
action case that could be headed
to the Supreme Court.
A two-judge panel of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the First
Circuit found that Harvard’s race-
conscious admissions process
does not violate civil rights law
when the university selects an
incoming undergraduate class. In
its quest for racial and ethnic
diversity, the university acknowl-
edges that it sometimes gives aca-
demically qualified applicants
from underrepresented back-
grounds, including African Amer-
icans and Latinos, a positive “tip”
that can help their chances of
admission.
The decision from appellate
Judges Jeffrey R. Howard a nd
Sandra L. Lynch w as the second
straight legal win for Harvard in a
lawsuit with major stakes for
higher education nationwide.
Students for Fair Admissions, a
group opposed to the use of race
in admissions decisions, sued the
university in 2014 in an effort to
halt what it alleged was unlawful
discrimination.
The case went to trial in late
2018 after experts from both sides
analyzed a huge trove of internal
Harvard data spanning several
years of applications and admis-
sion decisions.
The plaintiff alleged that Har-
vard engaged in illegal “racial
balancing” of its undergraduate
classes; relied too heavily on race
in making decisions; failed to give
adequate consideration to “race-
neutral” alternatives; and inten-
tion ally discriminated against
Asian Americans in ways that
benefited applicants from other
groups seeking entry to one of the
world’s most competitive univer-sities.
U.S. District Judge Allison D.
Burroughs r uled in 2019 for Har-
vard on all counts. The plaintiff
appealed soon after in a bid to
overturn that ruling.
“The issue before us is whether
Harvard’s limited use of race in its
admissions process in order to
achieve diversity in the period in
question is consistent with the
requirements of Supreme Court
precedent,” Lynch wrote in the
appellate court ruling released
Thursday that affirmed the trial
judge’s decision. “There was no
error.”
Judge Juan R. Torruella, w ho
had also been on the panel re-
viewing the appeal, died last
month.
Edward Blum, p resident of
Students for Fair Admissions,
said in a statement Thursday:
“While we are disappointed with
the opinion of the First Circuit
Court of Appeals, our hope is not
lost. This lawsuit is now on track
to go up to the U.S. Supreme Court
where we will ask the justices to
end these unfair and unconstitu-
tional race-based admissions pol-
icies at Harvard and all colleges
and universities.”
Harvard, backed by many oth-
er colleges and universities and
education groups, has denied the
plaintiff’s allegations of wrongdo-
ing. The university says it adheres
to Supreme Court rulings over
decades that have allowed the use
of race within certain limits.
“Today’s decision once again
finds that Harvard’s admissions
policies are consistent with Su-
preme Court precedent, and law-
fully and appropriately pursue
Harvard’s efforts to create a di-
verse campus that promotes
learning and encourages mutual
respect and understanding in ourcommunity,” Harvard spokes-
woman Rachael Dane s aid in a
statement. “As we have said time
and time again, now is not the
time to turn back the clock on
diversity and opportunity.”
More than 40,000 applicants
sought to enter Harvard’s under-
graduate college this fall, and
fewer than 5 percent were offered
admission. Of those admitted,
Harvard said 24.5 percent identi-
fied as Asian American, 14.8 per-
cent as African American or
Black, 12.7 percent as Latinx and
1.8 percent as Native American.
The legal and political land-
scapes have shifted markedly in
the six years since the Students
for Fair Admissions suit was filed.
The Supreme Court in 2016
upheld — within limits — the use
of race in admissions at the Uni-
versity of Texas at Austin. It was
the latest in a string of rulings on
the issue stretching back to the
1970s.
But the court has changedsince 2016, with the retirement of
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and
the death of Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg. The court’s new 6-
conservative majority, cemented
with the recent appointment of
Justice Amy Coney Barrett to
Ginsburg’s seat, could view the
long-running controversy over
race-conscious admissions in a
new light.
Students for Fair Admissions is
also challenging the use of race in
admissions at the public Univer-
sity of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill in a federal lawsuit that went
to trial this week. UNC-Chapel
Hill is defending its practices.
Many universities, public and
private, consider race and ethnic-
ity as one factor when choosing a
class, part of what they call a
“holistic” review of applications.
But not all do.
Several states bar public uni-
versities from considering race.
California voters on Nov. 3 r eject-
ed a ballot measure that wouldhave repealed a ban on the use of
race in public university admis-
sions and other situations. But
the politics of the issue are com-
plex, as this year’s demonstra-
tions for social and racial justice
have shown the power of the
Black Lives Matter movement.
Thursday’s ruling in the Har-
vard case was another develop-
ment in a debate over admissions
that has long stirred passions.
The appellate court gave a firm
endorsement of the university’s
argument that racial diversity on
campus is crucial to its education-
al mission.
“Harvard’s interest in student
body diversity and its consider-
ation of race to attain it is also not
unique,” the ruling said. “Many
other colleges and universities
consider an applicant’s race, in
addition to many other factors, in
admissions. And the business
community has communicated
its interest in having a well-edu-
cated, diverse hiring pool both in
this case and in the prior govern-
ing Supreme Court cases.”
The appellate ruling dismissed
the plaintiff’s argument that Har-
vard gives too much weight to
race.
The ruling also raised what
could become a key question for
the Supreme Court: How long
should universities be able to con-
sider race?
“Importantly, the evidence is
that Harvard has periodically re-
viewed its use of race in the past,
has periodically and recently con-
sidered race neutral alternatives,
and has made it clear that it will
continue to do so in the future,”
the ruling said. It added: “No
Supreme Court precedent re-
quires Harvard to identify a spe-
cific end point for its use of race.”
[email protected]Harvard admissions don’t disfavor Asian Americans, a ppeals court affirms
BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
Plaintiffs in the suit, which could end up before the Supreme Court,
argued in part that Harvard engaged in illegal “racial balancing.”Take The Post
for a workout.wpost.com/podcasts
S0263 1xFreder ick GAITHERSBURG Hagerstown
WonderBook.com/sell-us-books 301-977-Brought to our stores 10-6 every day • No appointment needed
Also Blu -Rays, DVDs, CDs, LPs and more • CASH PAID
House calls possible for large collections of 1000+ itemsWONDER BOOKWE BUYALL BOOKS