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Affirmative action, a set of policies that came into view under the presidency of John F. Kennedy, in recent times has come under attack by opponents of the practice who call it a form of reverse racism. While the related policies were enacted to provide a fair opportunity to all, the Justice Department is gathering itself to launch a lawsuit based on how colleges admit students due to race.

The New York Times obtained a document showing that Justice Department officials are shifting office resources to take aim at universities over their affirmative action policy in order to determine if they withheld white students from enjoying the same admission opportunity.

The Times writes:

The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”

The announcement suggests that the project will be run out of the division’s front office, where the Trump administration’s political appointees work, rather than its Educational Opportunities Section, which is run by career civil servants and normally handles work involving schools and universities.

The Washington Post reported that their sources within the department said that the Trump administration’s plan to move forward with this investigative slant into the policy was sparked by a refusal of longtime employees pushing back on working on the project. The staffers, who worked in the department’s civil rights division, believed that the plan went against what the office stood for in regards to providing fair educational opportunities.

Twitter users have reacted to the news of the affirmative action investigation by the DOJ. We’ve posted a number of responses below and on the following pages.

Photo credit: Elvert Barnes via Foter.com / CC BY-SA

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