A New York University student’s proposed class action alleging that the editor selection process for the school’s flagship law review discriminates against white, heterosexual men is a “hammer in search of a nail,” the university said in a newly filed motion to dismiss.
NYU on Monday asked a Manhattan federal judge to end the case, arguing that the anonymous white male plaintiff lacks standing to sue and that his claims that the NYU Law Review illegally gives preference to “women, non-Asian racial minorities, and homosexual and transgender individuals” are unsubstantiated and “half-baked.”
The law review has not yet chosen new editors and staffers since the U.S. Supreme Court in June drastically curtailed the consideration of race in college admissions. As such, the school argued that the plaintiff—a white, male, first-year law student who said in his initial complaint that he intends to apply to the law review in May—is merely speculating that he would be shut out because of his race and gender, according to the motion to dismiss.
His case relies on a “highly attenuated chain of theoretical possibilities,” the motion to dismiss said, describing the lawsuit as “hopelessly premature.”
A spokesperson for NYU, which is represented by Roberta Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink, said Tuesday that "speculation is not enough to bring a federal lawsuit."
The plaintiff, referred to as John Doe in court papers, is represented by America First Legal, an organization headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
Conservative lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, who unsuccessfully sued both the NYU Law Review and the Harvard Law Review in 2018 for discrimination, is also on Doe’s legal team. Mitchell and other members of Doe’s legal team did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
NYU also argued in its motion to dismiss that opportunity for law review applicants to submit diversity statements or discuss diversity in personal statements does not run afoul of the recent Supreme Court ruling, which said such statements are lawful as part of a holistic review of candidates.
The ruling, NYU said, did not "transform ‘diversity’ into a dirty word.”
Read more:
Conservative group sues NYU, claiming selection of law journal student staff discriminates
White male NYU Law student seeks class action status in bias case
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