The Harvard lawsuit does not matter

Read: What is the Harvard Trial Really

Fitzsimmons did not bite. "I'm not sure I'd say decisive," he said, but he acknowledged that the breed, in some cases, helped. Fitzsimmons' vague answers do not satisfy Hughes, who tries again and again to get a concrete answer.

The trial followed a slow pace: first, a series of easy questions posed by the plaintiffs, who then presented some historical documents – a report from the Civil Rights Bureau of the Department of Education, as well as reports internal and emails – before doing the college action practices attack.

Harvard – despite the sometimes staggering testimony of the Dean of Admissions at his seat – is at the helm. Yes, it may be true that the breed is used as a tip for some students, but the Supreme Court has stated that such policies are permissible if the university has tried all the other measures of diversification.

The plaintiffs repeatedly came back to the thorny question of how Harvard dealt with the legacy admitted, the athletes recruited and the children of the donors, which did not have a favorable impact on the college . In a case that has attracted so much attention and attention, the battle is at least as much about the perception of the admission system by the public as the judge's. On Wednesday, Harvard lawyer William F. Lee checked the damage by informing reporters: "There are [children of] donors who enter and some who do not. No one claims that the admission of donors or children of donors or family members on the Dean's list has any effect on Americans of Asian descent. "

The trial will last a few more weeks, but the testimony of Fitzsimmons was the great spectacle; He opened the black box of the Harvard admission process to reveal how he chooses the students. If SFFA loses this case, it is almost certain that the decision will be appealed. (The judge is not required to make a decision on the last day, so it may be months before a decision is made.) But it is unclear whether Harvard would appeal the decision. if the college lost.

It seems that the ultimate goal of the plaintiffs is to take this case to the Supreme Court, which could happen in years if history is a guide. But the trial in the district court lays the groundwork. Complainants test their arguments to see which ones prove most effective. And once their course of action is smoothed, they will likely have an important opportunity to make their case to a reasonable Supreme Court composed of a majority of skeptical judges on positive discrimination policies.