ACLU, other groups support OU in lawsuit filed by white students alleging discrimination

Two nonprofit civil rights groups are supporting the University of Oklahoma’s request for dismissal of a federal lawsuit filed by three white OU students who claim the school denied them financial aid because of systemic discrimination that favors Black students.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma filed the brief in support of OU last week. Those groups say the students who sued — Brayden Johnson, Logan Rhines and Kayla Savage — “failed to provide enough context and detail in their allegations linking the allegedly adverse action to a discriminatory motive with something besides sheer speculation.”

The brief followed OU’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, filed July 15, in which the university claimed “there are simply no allegations sufficient to sustain a claim of intentional discrimination.”

OU’s public affairs office issued this statement to The Oklahoman on Friday: “The University of Oklahoma takes seriously its obligation to students and to properly administer financial aid. While we cannot comment on the specifics of ongoing litigation, our policies and procedures adhere to applicable laws."

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs , a conservative lobbying group, is among the groups representing the students in the case. Trent England, listed on the council's website as a primary media contact, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, left on Friday.

The lawsuit states that, “Rather than determining who to admit based on their race, the University of Oklahoma determines how much financial aid it gives to students based on their race. That is unlawful.” It notes elsewhere, “There is no legitimate basis for privileging the financial needs of students of one race over the financial needs of students of other races.”

The lawsuit alleges the three students received less assistance from OU because of race-based policies that guide the distribution of financial aid. The council has said it used a statistical analysis of publicly available data from 2009 to 2022 to conclude that OU considers race when awarding financial aid. OU has questioned the integrity of that analysis.

“The best Plaintiffs can muster is a supposed ‘sophisticated statistical analysis,’ shrouded in secrecy, which they claim shows that the aggregate financial aid over the last thirteen years has been disproportionally awarded to Black students,” OU’s motion read. “However, in higher education there are many different forms of financial aid, some of which are awarded based on federal or state formulas that the University does not control.

“Practices from thirteen years ago do not reflect practices today. Thus, an aggregate analysis does nothing to establish that the University intentionally discriminated against Plaintiffs, let alone can it establish that Plaintiffs were personally denied some form of aid they otherwise would have received but for a racial preference.”

Groups that filed brief in support of OU's position are at odds with university in another federal lawsuit

The two nonprofit groups noted they aren’t always in alignment with OU on legal matters, noting they’re currently involved in federal litigation against the university concerning House Bill 1775, a law that targets the teaching of critical race theory in Oklahoma schools.

“Because ACLU OK is dedicated to preventing discrimination, it has a special interest in ensuring that Defendants do not endure frivolous claims of discrimination based on misunderstandings of the law, like those brought by Plaintiffs in this case,” the ACLU stated in the brief.

“We found it necessary to step in because the plaintiffs provide no support for their far-reaching allegations,” said Chavis Jones, the associate counsel in the Educational Opportunities Project for the Lawyers’ Committee. “Targeting financial support for hardworking Black students is part of an insidious trend to attempt to expand the scope of the Supreme Court’s decision on college admissions last year. We stand on watch to fiercely fight back these cowardly attempts to weaponize a civil rights law against the very students it was intended to protect.”

Jones and his colleague, Maya Brodziak, joined ACLU attorneys Megan Lambert and Adam Hines in submitting the brief.

The nonprofits’ brief includes a lengthy section listing what they call “Oklahoma’s and OU’s contentious background with race relations. Plaintiffs paint a seemingly rosy picture for Black students attending OU because of the campus’s efforts to support students through non-exclusionary, Black-centered events. But the reality is that Black students at OU have to contend with a long history of racial discrimination by OU and Oklahoma that still infects their daily experiences on OU’s campus today.”

That section includes mentions of school segregation in Oklahoma Territory in the 1800s and notes that new state Legislature’s first acts after statehood in 1907, it “wrote racial segregation into the law.” It mentions two landmark court cases filed in the 1940s and 1950s by Black students who wanted to attend OU .

It also mentioned events of more recent vintage : In 2015, the OU Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity made national news for a racist chant. The fraternity chapter was shut down , and two members leading the chant left the university. In 2019, two more students left the university after wearing blackface in a video and using a racial slur. Later that year, a student posted a photo wearing a mud mask and appearing to mock campus blackface incidents. Soon after that, students protested after the use of a racial slur by two faculty members in class .

The lawsuit is an attempt to build on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 , in which the court ruled affirmative action admission policies at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina to be unconstitutional. The court said those policies violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Affirmative action is a policy meant to correct for the lingering effects of discrimination against historically disadvantaged groups.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: ACLU, other groups support OU in lawsuit filed by white students alleging discrimination