US Justice Department drops discrimination suit against Yale

WASHINGTON - The US Justice Department on Wednesday dropped a lawsuit accusing that Yale University has illegally discriminated against Asian American and white students in admissions.

A two-sentence filing in the US District Court in Connecticut gave notice of the Justice Department's "voluntary dismissal of this action," which was brought by the Donald Trump administration partly in a bid to challenge affirmative action programs that many conservatives consider illegal.

According to the lawsuit, filed in October after a two-year investigation, Asian American and white students were only one-eighth to one-fourth as likely to be admitted as African American applicants with comparable academic records. Yale called the government's conclusion hasty and meritless.

Yale in a statement praised the Justice Department's decision to drop the case, saying it was "gratified" by the decision.

The US Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected efforts to stop affirmative action in college admissions in the past, which the court has said can be justified as a way to achieve diversity on campus.

The Trump administration's Justice Department joined an earlier lawsuit against Harvard University based on similar allegations. But a federal judge ruled that while Harvard's admissions process may not be perfect, it was not the result of racial bias or conscious prejudice.