Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., faced an onslaught of criticism Thursday after she gave her take on the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling and suggested the high court isn’t taking it seriously his “ridiculous ‘color blindness’ allegations” or else, he would have “abolished” legacy admissions.
“If SCOTUS took their ridiculous ‘colorblindness’ claims seriously, they would have abolished legacy admissions, also affirmative action for the privileged,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet.
The “Squad” Democrat went on to point out that “70% of Harvard’s legacy applicants are white” and that the Supreme Court “didn’t touch that, which would have hurt them and their patrons.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came shortly after it was announced that the court struck down the use of race as a factor in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Equal Protection Clause amendment
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In response to Ocasio-Cortez, several social media users who questioned the lawmaker’s statements were quick to point out that the Supreme Court has not heard any cases on college and university legacy admissions — the practice of giving preference to the children of former students
“An absolute falsehood. There is no case before SCOTUS related to legacy admissions,” said one user. explains in a tweet. “Furthermore, the Constitution specifically prohibits racial discrimination, no [privileges] for relatives of former students. That’s what makes this a legal issue, rather than a political preference.”
“This is how AOC thinks the court works,” Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Joe Gabriel Simonson. he wrote in a tweet.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Thursday that the Supreme Court “would have struck down legacy admissions” if the justices were serious about “their ridiculous ‘colorblindness’ claims.” (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Another user wrote: “But the point of legacy admissions is not to admit students based on race. It’s just an outcome you don’t like. Unlike affirmative action, which uses race as a selection criterion” .
“There’s bad politics, and then there’s ‘the court should have struck down something that was never brought to court,'” another. he said in a tweet.
Others, such as attorney and conservative commentator Viva Frei, drew parallels between the percentage of white applicants of Harvard’s heritage and the total population of white people in America when targeting Ocasio-Cortez.
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“According to @AOC, Harvard is racist because 70% of legacy applicants are white. Ignore the fact that 71% of America is white.” Frei wrote in a tweet.
The Supreme Court meets in Washington, DC on June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Highlighting the total white American population, Shri Thakur, head of political affairs for the Notre Dame College Republicans, suggested that Harvard’s legacy admissions program “suggests that legacy helps minorities.”
“Also, can any of these people argue about affirmative action without what? AOC is not very smart.” Thakur added in the tweet.
During a Thursday evening interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur, Education Secretary Miquel Cardona suggested that legacy admissions programs offered by Harvard and other institutions should be looked at, saying they “extend the privileges , not opportunities.”
“We have to recognize that if we’re going to look at the tools that are being used for college admissions, we have to look at all of them,” said Cardona, who previously served as Connecticut’s education commissioner. “So right now, our goal is to provide information to colleges about the SCOTUS decision and what tools are still available to them.”
South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, a 2024 presidential candidate, called for colleges to end legacy-based admissions.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, speaks at a campaign event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, NH on May 25, 2023. (M. Scott Brauer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“I think the question is how do you continue to create a culture where education is the goal of every part of our community? One of the things that Harvard could do to make it even better is to eliminate legacy programs where they have preferences. treatment for legacy kids, not allowing professors, their kids to come to Harvard, too,” Scott said during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Faulkner Focus.”
In February, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced the Fair College Admissions for Students Act in an effort to “reform the legacy and donor admissions practices at universities across the country and ensure equity in the admissions process.”
