Democratic US lawmakers propose banning legacy admissions

Members of the University of North Carolina’s diverse student body mingle and make their way across campus as the Supreme Court weighs the issue of race-conscious admissions to colleges, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S., March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

(Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers said on Wednesday they were reintroducing a bill to ban higher education institutions that receive federal funds, as do virtually all U.S. colleges and universities, from favoring applicants with ties to donors and alumni.

The announcement came on the heels of the U.S. Education Department launching a civil rights investigation into Harvard to determine whether the college racially discriminates by favoring such "legacy" applicants in its admissions process.