On September 30, 2019, the District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued its long-awaited opinion in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, _ F. Supp. 3d. _, 2019 WL 4786210, No. 14-cv.14176-ADB (D. Mass. Sept. 30, 2019), upholding the race-conscious admissions program used by Harvard College against a challenge brought by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) which alleged that Asian American students were discriminated against by Harvard on account of their race.

The district court’s 130-page opinion carefully and thoughtfully reviews the voluminous evidence presented by the parties over three weeks of trial and concludes that while “not perfect,” Harvard’s admissions program meets the strict scrutiny standard articulated by the Supreme Court in Grutter v. 570 U.S. 297 (2013), as refined and more recently applied in Fisher v. University of Texas, 570 U.S.297 (2013) (Fisher I) and Fisher v. University of Texas, 136 S. Ct. 2198 (2016) (Fisher II).