White House Dodges on Legacy Admissions, Says They’ve Nominated Diverse Judges

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question on whether the Biden administration opposes legacy admissions by stating that President Joe Biden has nominated diverse judges, they don’t have anything to say about acting on legacy admissions, “but certainly, we’re going to be very vocal about it.”

Host Ari Melber asked, “What about alumni preferences? We’ve seen some civil rights groups, we had one on the show this week say, well, okay, if you’re taking all this off the table, don’t tell me it’s an even playing field, because they grandfather in the racism of past generations. Does this administration have a position against alumni preferences?”

Jean-Pierre responded to the arguments laid out by Melber against legacy admissions by saying, “Yeah.” And added, “So, what I can say, at the moment, for now, is, one of the things, because, as I mentioned, the President takes this very seriously, he’s an expert at this when it comes to judges and getting judges through. What we’ve done from day one is made sure that we have a — as we’re nominating judges and getting them through, the federal judges, that they’ve been diverse. We’ve done about 136 federal judges who are diverse and represent this country. And that is also important. So, we’re going to keep that afoot, make sure that we continue to focus on that. I don’t have anything to share on any actions that we’re taking, but certainly, we’re going to be very vocal about it. We’re going to continue, as I mentioned, with the federal judges. And we’re going to say, this is wrong. It is unprecedented. This is what we’ve seen from this Supreme Court.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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